Babylon 5 Mod

[Andrés]

I've designed the whole sci-fi crossover mod thinking in option "A". It'd be nice if you can use the same racial traits numbers to make merging later easier.

7 - Babylon tech (general available to all)
8 - Centauri Tech
9 - Earth Tech
10 - Lnaw Tech
11 - Minbari Tech
12 - Narn Tech
13 - Shadow Tech
14 - Vorlon Tech
(if you need some other racial trait you have to use 33, 34, ect.)

I was thinking that there is a limited mid point that can be interesting:
If you give a tech area a race exclusive requisit, but don't add it the racial number, only those who have the racial trait can start to research it, but others can gain it by analyzing captured ships or using intel.
In a full tech start all will have it.
It would be nice to have a few "capturable" race-exclusive tech areas, something that is not too alien to another race or sci-fi.

[Val]

I actually added a bunch of racial techs with all the races in mind. Here is what I had so far:

20 - Abbai (LNaW)
21 - Belt Alliance
22 - Brakiri (LNaW)
23 - Cascor *
24 - Centauri
25 - Dilgar
26 - Drahk
27 - Drazi (LNaW)
28 - Earth Alliance
29 - Gaim
30 - Grom
31 - Hurr
32 - Hyach
33 - Ipsha
34 - Kirishiac Lords (Ancient)
35 - Llort
36 - Lumati *
37 - Markab
38 - Minbari
39 - Moradi *
40 - Narn
41 - Orieni
42 - Pakmara (LNaW)
43 - Raiders
44 - Shadow
45 - Streib
46 - Third Space Aliens * (Ancient)
47 - Torata
48 - Torvalus (Ancient)
49 - Vorlon (Ancient)
50 - Vree (LNaW)
51 - Yolu *
52 - Descari

Right now only the ones without the * are in use for weapons or other components in the current merge file. Races with a LNaW after them will be setup as a choice for the LNaW emps, so you could play LNaW focusing on Drazi, Abbai, Brakiri, etc. until they are split into their own catagory. Ancient denotes an Ancient race.

[Andrés]

Ok I'll have to re-number all tech areas.
Why start from 20? I don't have enought room to place all others before.

BTW merging would be easier if I can merge the Excel files, so I can change family numbers, ect.

[Baron Munchausen]

Remember the 'dual tech requirement' effect. If a component requires both a 'generic' tech and a racial restricted tech, it can be captured by a race that does not have the racial ability, they just can't research that tech any further once they have it. This might be a good thing to do with the 'Ancient' techs. It would then be possible for the younger races to capture or be given technology from the 'First Ones'...

[Val]

I had just arbitrarily started at 20 figuring other mods wouldn't have more than 15. I had done the same with the components and other files, to leave space for the other mods

That being said, don't worry about redoing all you stuff, I will just renumber mine to go from 50 - up (just add 30 to the current #'s)

[Val]

To try to make life easier - and to cut down on the number of files I'm uploading to this site, I'm going to try to use a geocities site for future updates and just post the URLs.

Everything to date can be downloaded piecemeal at:

B5Mod Page

[Andrés]

I had posted this some time ago, but didn't get a reply. What do you think about these sizes?
Sizes & Tonnage

[Val]

I was thinking of sticking to the generic SE IV sizes, to avoid having to make each race a seperate ship list (though with the excel sheet a merge would be easier). The other prob is though the sizes are good indicators of weight/tonnage, it doesn't really reflect size well. EG: The Drazi Sky Serpent is bigger than a T-Bolt. Plus, there are dozens of other ships from the B5 Wars game that would need hull sizes - though maybe that would be the way to go, just make each race's hull class for their race alone!

[Andrés]

That's what I was thinking about.
I know my list is very incomplete and many sizes would need to be added.

[Val]

Ok, here is what I'm planning on doing for the weapon techs:

Each broad weapon area will have a tech (eg: Laser Weapons)

Then each race will have weapons in different 'power' classes (eg: light, medium, heavy, mega, ultra)

There will also be some specific types (eg: point-defense, rapid fire)

Finally, there will be advanced broad areas for races specializing in an area (eg: Advanced Laser Weapons)


So, for example: Combat Laser will require : Advanced Laser Weapons - Centauri (prereq Laser Weapons) & Medium Weapons - Centauri. An Interceptor Mk I will require: Particle Weapons, Point-Defence Weapons, Light Weapons - EA.


This will force a variety of techs to be researched to open up new weapons - and it will start races in their 'prefered' weapon tech areas. Also, this will allow techs to be captured and researched from that point on. Finally, this let me have many weapons with the same tech levels, yet keep them somewhat racially seperated.

I'm working on plugging in all the techs now, and setting up the families for the AI. With any luck (if I don't do too much OT this week), I should have something this weekend.

Once the weapons are done, we will then have Ships/Bases/Sats/Mines/Fighters almost complete - just needing armor and some extra components (racial specific & B5 specific stuff). I'm reworking the troops and infantry in between weapon work So, we are almost done!