Babylon 5 Mod

[Geryon]

That's cool. It'll be nice to see some advanced plasma weapons and maybe those molecular slicers

Enjoy your trip.

[Nomor]

Has anyone done anything with the Drakh?

I have a history text that can be added to the Drakh_AI_General.txt and a race bmp but nothing else yet.



[ May 19, 2003, 01:14: Message edited by: Nomor ]

[pathfinder]

Nomor: Not yet but I guess I could do something maybe in 2-3 weeks from now. Going to Cincinnati for 1-2 weeks. Probably grab a shipset from someone and just add the few known ships from DOGA based on the pics available to it.

There is some Drakh tech in the components file and in the techarea.txt file (and of course create their various AI_files).

[ May 19, 2003, 01:17: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

[Nomor]

Thanks PF. Have sent you the Race portrait to look at.

Like?

[pathfinder]

Yup, sure do...

Hmmm...used SJ's tech-grid thingy to whip up a new EA plasma weapon (trans-phase plasma cannon). Looks ok but not sure about the range/damage increases.

[ May 19, 2003, 02:20: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

[Geryon]

Sounds good, man you sure work fast. I suppose the damage and range should be closer to the heaviest pulse cannons though not quite since Plasma weapons get weaker as they travel through the coldness of space...unlike the particle based pulse cannons. However you can make the plasma weapons stronger than the other pulse cannons as a trade off. You can either use other heavy pulse cannons that have longer ranges or the plasma cannons that have lesser range but are much more damaging.

[pathfinder]

Geryon: Hehe, just used the Pak'Ma'Ra Fuser as a template...may be a bit strong *shrug*

[Timstone]

Because I'm busy with the B5 Mod 2.0, the weapons section must also be restructured. But I wondered how I would do that.
I previously suggested to standardise all the races (give them a set number of weapons available to them beside the general techs), but now I think it might not be entirely what we want. The mod is about two things: many, many, many weapons and as true as can be to the serie. The many weapons issue can be taken care of, not that difficult. But true to the serie is a little bit harder to satisfy. One race appears quite regularly in the serie and the other only a few shots, fortunately we have the AoG books to draw inspiration from. But the most important thing is to balance it all. Every race must have an equal chance to kick butt. Now there can be a race with 500 weapons and another with only 10. Not very cool.
So, any suggestions about how to solve this? Hope you guys have some ideas.

[Jamorobo]

Hi all i'm back after an age and a half.

Well a question first off:

I know there is a Gold Version as well as plain Se4 but which is now being developed, are all of the improvements going to be in Plain se4 then Gold at a later date as it was or is it just gold now.

It's just that i ain't updated by Plain se4 B5 mod since the start of January and i was wondering if i should download the Gold Version (don't worry i don't need directions to the Gold Version, i have looked back a few pages )

Right now on to me explaining things:

The Pulse weapons take up too much kt at the mo, Val admitted this (it was a mistake on his part whilst typing it) and yet after me badgering him for 6 months still nout has been done.

Also pulse weapons are not as good as they should be as EA changed their laser wielding capital ships for Pulse cannon ships as they had a longer range even though they do a little less damage. Hense the warlock EA destroyer using Pulse weapons. At the moment in the mod Laser weapons fire further and do more damage than pulse weapons. so a complete reversal!

It's good Plasma weapons are getting an overhaul as there pretty much pointless at the moment being out ranged by other weapons even though you can fit alot on one ship.

[Geryon]

Welcome back Jamorobo, to help answer some of your questions:

As far as I know we are working on the Gold Version of the mod, I am uncertain if PF and Val (when he returns) will plan to import any new additions/changes from the Gold to the standard Version.

The pulse cannons are a bit heavy in tonnage I agree. As to the weapons efficiency, here's what I can tell you. Lasers are correct in having longer range and more damage, most EA ships carry lasers in one form or another.

Originally, the EA relied on plasma and matter weapons such as Rail Guns at the time of the Dilgar Invasion. The Dilgar were the first to develop particle pulse weapons which the EA and others retrofitted into their own technology while other major powers such as the Centauri and Narns already had them. Plasma weapons are stronger than particle weapons but only at closer ranges due to the coldness of space which diminish plasma's heat as it travels.

Laser weapons were developed by the Narns from reverse engineered Centauri weapons and later sold to the EA during the Minbari War.

There are several EA ships which still use plasma weapons such as the Olympus and the Hyperion's smaller turrets (the large batteries in the front are particle). Most ships have been rearmed with the particle pulse weapons such as the Warlock, Nova and Omega. Still Lasers are used in abundance as a standard weapon in the EA.

The Omega and Hyperion both contain the X-Ray Heavy Laser (the Omega combining it with the pulse cannons on the same turret). The Warlock however uses the same Heavy pulse cannons as the Nova, adds missiles and torpedoes, reincorporated the Rail Gun and has the 2 forward huge Particle Cannon beams.

Basically Plasma weapons have more strength but are short range, particle weapons have longer range but are a bit weaker while lasers have both the benefit of range and strength.

The strongest weapon the EA has fielded though was the Light Molecular Slicer derived from the standard Shadow Molecular Slicer. This weapon was given to the EA by the Shadows to originally be mounted on the Warlock which was the original ship intended to have the hybrid shadow armor, when Clark panicked as he was losing the Civil War, both the hybrid armor and the Light Molecular Slicers were adapted onto new Omega hulls and rushed into service. This was a blue beam as opposed to the X-Ray laser which is red. The LMS has further range, more damage than standard lasers and it didn't require practically any recharge time as the Omega-X's just let them rip and didn't need to stop, recharge and then fire again like other lasers. It was suspected that the tech for these weapons were destroyed by the Shadows after Clark lost the war but in the series Crusade it was planned to be revealed that EA special black ops had in fact successfully adapted EA shadow armor and the molecular weapons, which would appear in a ship often referred to as the EA/Shadow Hybrid. So it is also believable that the EA still has Light Molecular Slicers in its inventory and might even have been fitted into later models of the Warlock as originally intended.

[ May 19, 2003, 22:26: Message edited by: Geryon ]