Babylon 5 Mod

[pathfinder]

To add to what Geryon states the AoG book "Ships of the Fleet" also has the Shadow Omega with molecular pulsar (similar to a Minbari weapon) and another molecular weapon (Light molecular cutter IIRC). I am looking at LEAST the light molecular slicer being added since it actually was in the TV show (testing it in my current game---need something to combat the Minbari & Shadows (regular molecular slicers in battleships mounts *shudder* ).

As for the plasma range...is a problem only if the plasma-equipped ships run into Vorlon, Shadow or Minbari ships or ones with lasers/pulse weapons

[ May 20, 2003, 01:29: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

[pathfinder]

As for 1.49, I am NOT going to go back and try and untangle the RCE's due to engines (and whatever else). The Gold Version has proven to be very stable (>900 turns in previous game without so much as a whimper).

[AGoetz]

Just checking that I'm following correctly : Version 2.0 will be Gold only.
Version 2.0 will have completely new weapon systems, hopefully giving every race a usable range of comparable power (Ancients will of course have the best)

[pathfinder]

AGoetz: Gold Version already out. Timstone is doing a bit different Version. I am attempting to re-do some of the weapons in current (unofficial) Gold Version.

I am not going to fiddle with 1.49 any more as the RCE's and their root cause are beyond my limited abilities to determine and/or fix.

[pathfinder]

Can anyone tell what the heck, in SEIV terms, a gunship is?

[Geryon]

A gunship is the modern day equivalent of an attack helicopter such as an Apache. In B5 terms a Gunship might be a warship-like transport (think something like a battle Version of a shuttle) or it can even be a small capital ship such as the Drazi Sunhawk that is a Gunship.

In terms of SE4 you might be able to use it in either a larger fighter/attack shuttle role (if possible) or in a smaller capital ship role between scout and escort.

Oh and one Last thing, I was browsing through the booklet that came with my Gold game and it says that it includes a bunch of mods in the cd. I recall one of them having some sort of pirate race that actually assaults other ships to survive and thrive and don't require planets, I was curious what do you think about this for the Raiders? I haven't got a clue how to implement it or if it's from the normal game itself but that does portray them closer to the series. What do you think?

[ May 20, 2003, 09:20: Message edited by: Geryon ]

[Timstone]

My Last day here, tomorrow I'm off to Poland and the Czech Republic. Jeha! I really want to go there, two very cool countries.
Anyway, back to bussines.
I see that nobody has given me any advise about how to do the weapons for every race. Than this is what I'll do. I'll convert the rest of the Ancients (I already had plans for them) and then I'll post that Version and see what you guys think of it.
I repeat, nothing special is done to it. I'm just restructuring the whole mod for easy use by other people. Also that way I can add anything much faster (when that Version of the mod is accepted).
So PF, I'm not doing something different. It's still the same mod, only with a different internal structure. It'll be entirely Gold orrientated.

Geryon: Very impressive knowledge. I comment you.

[ May 20, 2003, 09:24: Message edited by: Timstone ]

[pathfinder]

Geryon: That would be the Pirates & Nomads MOD. Both the Raiders & ShagToth will have these traits (no colonies IIRC) if/when they are implemented. I have no clue as to how that works so atm they both are "normal" races.

[ May 20, 2003, 11:11: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

[Jamorobo]

Originally posted by 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.

Good, it's ok i checked the site i tried to remember the info from and you are correct, np. Also i looked at a B5 war sheet of a EA Destroyer and the Heavy laser does have more range than a Heavy Pulse cannon. ( it looses -1 acc every 3hexes to the pulse cannons -1 every 2 hexes) This loss of acc is apparently how Val decided the max range of weapons.

Anyway i'm glad to see someone agrees with the prob with the pulse weps size

Are we going to keep Val's formula for weapons as they are and just tinker to improve gameplay (this includes adding some weapons to give some races more choice in what to use)?

Or are we going to start from scratch.

Apparently Val took all his specs for weapons from the B5 War game and did somthing to make it so he had levels of weapons insted of just the one. it this somthing we could contunue as it does give a solid bases for weapon damage and range to a point, the only problem is you don't get lvl1-10 heavy laser, only one type of heavy laser (i hope you get what i mean). So you would need some type of formula for each weapon (how it increases in range and damage over the X amount of levels the weapon has).

On a different note, the Shaddow based EA weapons are catered for on the mod allready arn't they. IIRC vorlons and shaddows have "Shaddow/vorlon based weapons" as a research field and the idea is the player gives this tech to another race eg. EA and with the tech and another tech eg laser weapons 4 and biological weapons 3 the EA player is able to produce the kickass hybrid weapon.

Anyway i'm off to download the Gold Version of this mod and the latest Version of the Gold se4 patch

[Suicide Junkie]

The way it works is:
a) The race has no colonization ability
b) The race is given bonus components for improving their ability to capture ships cheaply.
Small boarding party components, anti-boarding defense crew toxins, shield disruptors, etc.
c) The race is given bonus components for living in space... Tiny spaceyards, no maintenance costs, completely undetectable ships (Blend in with the civilian traffic), etc.

All combined, this gives you a race that will quickly spread out and build small bases and outPosts in secret places. They will be able to use their stealthiness to pick and choose the targets they attack (unescorted transports, small colonies, etc). They can then plunder the planets and deconstruct the ships for cash and tech.
Low or No maintenance allows them to survive even after taking losses to unexpected resistance, and when the other races have their military doing extra patrols and escorts.