Babylon 5 Mod

[Sukerkin]

After finally getting my hands on the Gold update for this stupendous mod I've put in a couple of hours of play ... it's just like being a beginner all over again as I have no idea what order to research things in, what bit of tech does what etc etc .

However (and I hesitate to bring this up as it seems churlish given the immense amount of effort that's gone into this), I've come across a few niggles and I wonder if they've been brought up before or if it's the result of something I've broken when I installed the files?

Firstly, the Gold update 'patch' has an error in the Minbari Scout entry in the DesignCreation.txt file; the text for Default Strategy was 'Maximum Weapon Range' rather than 'Weapons'. Every time I ended a turn this scolding dialogue would come up about an invalid entry - luckily it was specific about where it was so it was easy enough to fix.

Secondly, in the star map that I generated for the game, several systems have no name (and of course neither do the planets in those systems). No exactly a fatal flaw but a bit odd.

Thirdly, when you're in the Ship Design 'forms' the info box for the Ion Bolt weapons loses the text for Abilities at the bottom - it looks as if something is overlaying it and obscuring the words.

Fourthly, trying to use the Tech Areas part of the Technology Tree viewer (but not the Tech Levels strangely) causes an Access Violation in SE4.exe. Plus, you can't Export the tables for viewing outside the game (again, no problem with the Tech Levels).

An extra wrinkle is that if you use the page-up/down keys rather than the scroll bar then this happens much less. I found a text error under the Advanced Planetary Weapons entry in techareas.txt ('Balistic Weapons' rather than 'Ballistic') which I thought might be the cause but it wasn't .

I hope you chaps who worked on this don't take this as whiny criticism as I'm immensely impressed by what you've done. So any help or hints you can give on how to cure these minor ills would be much appreciated.

[ June 05, 2003, 21:57: Message edited by: Sukerkin ]

[Fyron]

Secondly, in the star map that I generated for the game, several systems have no name (and of course neither do the planets in those systems). No exactly a fatal flaw but a bit odd.

Check SystemNames.txt in the B5 mod data folder. If it has fewer names than the number of systems the map generates, it will make systems with no name. Do you have the B5 mod systemnames file, or the normal one? I forget how many names are in it, but it should have enough.

[HVD]

Something i like to do is copy and paste the MOO3 system name list into the SEIV list, this extends the list enough that you will never need to worry about nameless systems.

[pathfinder]

Originally posted by Sukerkin:

Firstly, the Gold update 'patch' has an error in the Minbari Scout entry in the DesignCreation.txt file; the text for Default Strategy was 'Maximum Weapon Range' rather than 'Weapons'. Every time I ended a turn this scolding dialogue would come up about an invalid entry - luckily it was specific about where it was so it was easy enough to fix.

Thirdly, when you're in the Ship Design 'forms' the info box for the Ion Bolt weapons loses the text for Abilities at the bottom - it looks as if something is overlaying it and obscuring the words.

Fourthly, trying to use the Tech Areas part of the Technology Tree viewer (but not the Tech Levels strangely) causes an Access Violation in SE4.exe. Plus, you can't Export the tables for viewing outside the game (again, no problem with the Tech Levels).

An extra wrinkle is that if you use the page-up/down keys rather than the scroll bar then this happens much less. I found a text error under the Advanced Planetary Weapons entry in techareas.txt ('Balistic Weapons' rather than 'Ballistic') which I thought might be the cause but it wasn't .

1: Have not seen that kind of error in a while so whenever I put out the next beta that should be fixed.

2: A number of weapons have that. no idea what causes it and is not fixable as far as I am concerned. this would, if I am not mistaken, need code work and I don't know how to do that.

3: Never seen that...since it is an access violation again probably needs code work and I am not up to that.

and don't feel bad about *****ing about error. only way I find out about them is by someone telling me.

[Sukerkin]

Thanks for the responses chaps, very much appreciated and I'm glad I didn't upset you with what might have been perceived as 'nit-picking' errors.

IF, I think that I've got the right SystemNames.txt files installed, as Last night one of my scouts flew into Zha'Ha'Dum ... !

When I started the game tho' I generated a large map (to give me a chance of not running into someone until I'd figured out what I was doing ) so it's probably just that there're too many systems.

Pathfinder, it's a shame that those little flaws appear to be down to the base code of SE4 and so aren't readily curable. Still, they're only small irritations rather than game wrecking bugs so it's a credit to the work of you and the team that they're all the problems to be seen of late .

Much kudos to you gentlemen ... now all I need is a manual/strategy guide for the myriad facilities and technological devices :!

[pathfinder]

Sukerkin: Hehe, I need one of those strategy guides too

I only bits and pieces of the AI, so I need help wading through all that is there..

[Sukerkin]

Hi Pathfinder

I assume from that, that the documentation for the mod is in fairly standard condition for a software project then :.

As you were kind enough not to mind when I reported those little 'bugs' I discovered, I hope that your patience will continue as, after a couple of days play now, I've found a few more.

1) I don't know if this is generally true as it's the only ship size I've put this many engines on so far but if you try to put more than 42 engines (Advanced Fusion III's in this case) onto the Large Repair Tug then the Movement drops to zero.

2) The level 3 facilities for Manufacturing Colony, Homeworld Hub and Colony Hub don't appear once you've attained the prerequisite technologies (B5 Standard race and Industry II).

3) If you upgrade a Base Space Yard then it exceeds the size limit as it seems to add an extra 50kT from somewhere. You have to manually remove the Space Yard component and re-add it.

Again, these are nothing major (tho' the level 3 facilities not showing up was a bit of a downer ) and I'm enjoying playing the mod a great deal.

I do have a fair number of questions about what particular components and facilities do in conjunction with each other but I don't want to clutter up an already large thread with them.

Is it worth opening up a new discussion for technical questions or anomaly reporting on the B5 Mod do you think?

[Suicide Junkie]

As for #1, that is a limitation in SE4...
Maximum 255 points, after which it wraps around to 0 again.

Basically, think of it as the maximum engines the ship can support...
If you really need to go faster, use a smaller hull (less mass means the same thrust(#engines) moves it faster)

#3 Is, I believe, a family number problem. Hitting upgrade makes it use the ship yard instead of the base yard or vice versa.

[pathfinder]

Sukerkin: No, go ahead and post your questions for B5 here.

As for #2: Val kept dropping those techs out each time he did a new Version. I guess when I finish the next one, I'll add them back.

[ June 09, 2003, 03:02: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

[Starcrusade]

Well I realize that it is available somewhere (even in this thread), but I've been unable to find an up-to-date Version of the mod. I am having un-imaginable trouble with the Version I do have (the multiple downloads from the Malfador Mod list).

If it is at all possible I would appreciate it if someone could direct me to a place where I can find the data files at least or the full mod if possible.