Updated mod: The Babylon Project

[PaddirN]

OK, new version 2.45 has now been uploaded, you can get it at the top of the thread. Highlights include:

* As per request: the addition of beacons to your list of allies in the war against the Shadows. The drazi ally event has been deleted and in its place is: Tirk, a drazi mercenary you can summon with a hyperspace beacon. There's also a few more beacons out there to find, can you catch them all?

* New race & ship: Vree with a Xill saucer. Vree Conglomerate grandly open now for good business trade!

* New ship: Vorlon fighter

* adjustments to power levels of shadows & vorlons, should make battles slightly more manageable

* Jump point generator is now findable and the hyperin/hyperout effects/sounds have been changed to make it more "realistic"

* Yet another attempt at jumpgates

Enjoy.

[CautiousChaos]

Uh oh.. Bug. I met the Vree and was offered a beacon (think it was the Vree).

Anyways, I had no room for extra cargo, so I wanted to switch out an item for the beacon.

I clicked on the item to switch and then moved it to the planet.

Then a whole mess (like 5) beacons appeared on the planet. Then another 4.

I finally got rid of the item in exchange for the beacon and found 3 beacons in my hold.

This is over the maximum I should have been able to carry.

I then took this over to a shadow-occupied planet, entered combat, and crashed to desktop...

Pity, I was looking forward to the fight...

-cc

[PaddirN]

huh... That's really weird, I'll try and mess around and see if I can recreate that one.

(10 minutes later)...

ok, figured it out. Apparently that was supposed to be a popup, but it wasn't functioning that way, it was happening even without a full cargo hold. Fixed the problem, I'll update here in a sec along with a few new goodies, sorry about that. My debugging process isn't incredibly rigorous.

[PaddirN]

Aight, new update is posted at the top. Just wanted to fix that bug really quick, but I figured I may as well just post everything I've worked on since the last update. Newer things include:

* 2 New Mainquests (neither of which are kawangi clones, I promise):
- Thirdspace aliens invade!
- The Shadows launch an all-out attack!
* New sprite for the Raider Zephyr, now you won't have to look at that mutilated garthan fighter anymore!
* Fix: Vorlon Planet Killer mainquest SHOULD (fingers crossed) work right now.
* Fix: Vree "multiplying beacon" bug buggered

[Black_Bear]

Good game play. You have done a GREAT JOB!!

[PaddirN]

Tanks, although I still think like 90% of the work was really done by Psientist, I'm just extending the work. This is actually my first attempt at modding anything, but Weird Worlds is fairly easy to pick up. It's prolly just as much fun for me tinkering around with the game as it is playing it.

[Jamiri]

Wow! This mod's really evolving! Every new release is better, filled with more surprises and has more depth than a previous release. Keep it coming, PaddirN!

Just want to give you my detailed feedback once again (you don't have to answer this long post).


Impressions:
- the game has so many options and decision points now that every time I play it it's really different depending on the choices I make. This mod is truely a must have for B5 fans!
- Very cool is the new pics and sounds you added. I am really happy to see that the old hyperdrive "Christmas bells" sound was removed and replaced.
- You did it! The Drazi Merc finally co-operates with the game ;-)! I also like the way you made it work.
- The cloaking sound of the Shadows is even better!!! However, why does de-cloaking still play the old sound. It'd be even more frightening if a Shadow crab uncloaked right in front of you with this eerie sound.
- The Raiders are much better now, especially their weapons are cool visually. The Battle Wagon is also a nice addition.
- You can return Garibaldi and Bester early - but does it have some benefit for the player or you just lose the ability to catch certain thiefs? Maybe you should get some reward for bringing them back early.
- There is less WW stuff, and more B5 items! Not that I dislike the WW gizmos, but they don't really fit into the setting. I have said that earlier, but especially the Urlu and the Muktian ships seem a bit awkward.
- The Nials have become much more of a threat, although they tend to stop once close to an enemy.
- Wow, the Vorlons as a Kawangi replacement. Can I still get them as an ally against the Shadows?
- Very cool that you placed Morden closer to Epsilon Eridani. Makes you take a tough decision in the beginning. However if you go evil, now you can just wish for a Shadow Cleaver Beam and you're done. Maybe Shadow tech should not be given away so easily - same for Vorlon tech, which Morden shouldn't have for sale anyway.
- The Hyperion class is really great. How many fighters does it launch simultaneously? Unlimited?
- I also like the idea with the Data crystals. Had a good laugh until I got the one mentioning Clarke's scheming - that was the moment when I thought: Another important B5 story element in the mod! Things are getting better and better! Go, PaddirN! Go!
- Nice idea having the Centauri Battlecruiser drift in space - now the player can decide whether to board it (and making the Narn your enemies thå next time you meet them) or to leave it behind to keep the chances of befriending the Narn
- The jumpgates: well, though I see they really should be in the game and the female voice over, as well as the beacon approach is really great, I doubt that using the Aethric Mirror for this purpose is a good idea. The problem is that you displace enemy fleets with it, which is not realistic and makes the game far too simple. Unfortunately, I do not have any better idea on how to implement them in the game.


Ideas:
- the Triluminary should be removed once you have Delenn on your ship, and Delenn should always be much more valuable than the Triluminary (makes it a minor mission to have to pick up Delenn from her homeworld to get those additional points). Does Delenn acutally have a higher purpose in the game?
- The Omega Class X-Ray main cannons should have their own proper sound from the series. The Tachyon Ray sound is not suitable for their mighty beams.
- Have some defense against the virus - maybe something like the Plasmaworm from WW, of which the description fits nicely!
- My personal opinion is that it should NOT be possible to find a Jump Point Generator on the map. It makes it a much more interesting and tough choice whether to ally with the Centauri (forfeiting the chance for such a device ) or whether to attack them to acquire a Jump Point Generator in battle against them. In addition, the device is very powerwul, so it should be quite hard to get one.


BUGS:
- One of the encounters in a black hole removed a beacon that I did not have
- when I summon Tirk the first time while not in combat, the radar screen pops up if I click on view in the planet display
- Great solution for the Victory Class main gun. However, I got the Narn ally by giving the Book of Narn to them. So during combat the Narn cruiser fired the Victory main gun instead.
- when I chose to be evil (give in to Morden's offer) the Shadows still attack me? Why? Also, why do the Minbari turn against me then, but the other races such as the Narn or EA don't?
- I still got the event where I meet the EA fleet in deep space hailing me and exchanging information, although B5 had turned independent due to Clarke's takeover of EA. Shouldn't this cancel this event to happen?
- Can Justin's mission to lure Sheridan to Zha'hadum acutally be completed? After getting this mission, I flew back to B5 to get to sheridan but nothing happened. Maybe it's a bug so let me recreate what I did: I got the mission from Justin on Zha'hadum (no battle took place), then I moved to a couple of black holes, where I had taken away my non-existing beacon (as described earlier), I moved on to B5 (nothing happened) returned to Zha'hadum, where I then also discovered the First One??? Why did I get to events on the same planet, and why can I free the First One from the Zha'hadum prison when I'm allied to the Shadows in the first place??
- B4 always attacks me and never just drifts defenselessly in space. Is that intentional? Furthermore, it does not have a long range attack, which makes it such an easy target even with the weakest weapons on your ship. How about some figther cover Or just remove the weapons entirely.
- The Drakh Keeper event did not place any Keeper icon in my hold. Is that because you removed it? Is there still any effect of this event?
- When I summon the Drazi Merc outside battle for the first time, the radar pops up and a first contact text box is displayed, which feels strange as it is not really first contact. Should work somehow similar to the Klakar encounter and summoning.

PaddirN, I really appreciate the great job you're doing here! I know how hard it is to come up with a mod of such scope (did my own mod back then for Strange Adventures in Infinite Space). I just wanted to let you know that there are players who enjoy playing what you produced! Keep up the great work!

[PaddirN]

Tanks for the feedback, I'm glad people like the mod, though I'm starting to worry about the bugs cropping up.

Impressions:
- One of my overall design ideas was to put in choices and conflict, because that was an overarching theme in the series, the choices the characters had to make: between the shadows & the vorlons, Londo and his rise&fall, Babylon 5 and Earth, Garibaldi's fall from grace. Everything they did had consequences later on down the line. I think Londo's story influences most design ideas.
- With the cloaking sound with the shadows I didn't want that screaming sound to be popping up every few seconds as it would get really old after a minute or so, hell if you just wait at the intro screen for the intro battle you'll hear it more than enough times.
- With garibaldi being returned early you actually get less points, though I'm considering adding on a reward later on. I may have bester interact with the Ship of Tears event.
- The vorlons may lend aid when the time is right.
- Yea I want the data crytals to add a certain surprise to the game, they're like little gift boxes.

Ideas:
- Delenn actually makes use of the triluminary later on, and if you follow it through you may even find a new friend in an unexpected place...
- I never thought of having a defense for the virus, but sounds good.
- With the jump point generator I was thinking of vanilla WW and I realized that you can just find it lying around. Plus I figured with all the high-powered baddies flyin around out there (shadows, vorlons, 3rdspace) players needed something to give them an edge. However there doesn't seem to be enough items in the mod and the JPG seems to pop up way too often, I'll fiddle around with an idea.

Bugs:
- Just put most of these on my toodoo list, tanks
- I never really wanted the shadows to actually ally with you, even if you accept their gift. They're not trying to be your friend, they're trying to create conflict by giving you something powerful. As for the other races, some I prolly accidentally left off, while the EA was intentional. If you think about it, Earth was actually aligned with the Shadows during the series, plus because of the media blackout they didn't even know anything that was going on outside their own world.
- The Justin/Sheridan thing I never finished, though I might at a later point. The trouble will be with 1) how to account for Sheridan being gone and the alarm popups 2) Victory mission where sheridan isn't young anymore. I knew it was gonna be big headache when I put it in, but I think I have an idea for it now that might work
- The drakh keeper has been removed as a passenger because it just didn't make sense to me that a little invisible thing riding around on your shoulder should take up valuable passenger space. So i figured you'd still be able to feel the effect of the keeper, without actually seeing him.

[chabex]

I am so happy to see the mod evoling like this! I wish a had more time to contribute some minor things to Psientist's mod (some objects-pictures) but for now I can only be "smart" and suggest things:
- In the B5 shows the destroyer class ships( eg Victory, Omega) they could fire their main gun only in one direction- no tracking. But they also had strong defense grid (eg plasma cannon) AND fighter bay!
What you say guys?

And I almost forgot: Happy New Year and modding to all of you!

[PaddirN]

- I've thought about adding a small fighter bay to the victory and there's already a version of the omega with the fighter bay in the earth alliance fleet, but i'm kind of worried about play balance with adding it to player ships. The designers of the original didn't even add a fighter bay to any of the player ships or even the allied ships. I think it has to do with how unbalanced it would make battles, as you could always just use your fighters to bait the enemy and then go in for the kill with your main ship. Having only a single fighter ally makes this a bit harder as he can only die once.

- as for the main gun tracking, that problem should be fixed with the victory (except in the simulator), although with the Omega I'm actually going over its forward weapons now readjusting trying to make those more "realistic".

- part of me even wants to add the defense grid too. I've gone over specs on B5Tech.com and both destroyers have pretty strong defense grids, but again, I think play balance would be disrupted. Ships wouldn't even have to worry about fighters because they'd be blowing them out of the sky left and right and the only way to counter that would be to beef up the fighter count in the fleets. Although with some of the changes I've been making to the fighters I may have to do that anyways.