Babylon 5 Mod

[grumbler]

I have resumed a several-months-old game as the Centauri and have noticed something I didn't see before. It may be a glitch, or it may be that I am just behind on a problem that was already solved.

None of the races seem to build spaceports under the AI!

Now some races are natural merchants and don't need them (but then they also don't get Homeworld hubs at the start of the game, which produces an almost-crippling lack of intel points early on, especially against the Vorlons or Shadows), but other just don't build them at all.

I tried going back and adding the trait "Scanner Jammer" to the trading port facility (and also made the TP facility family 1102 so that the AI wouldn't try to build manufacturing plants when it was still too early) and since scanner jammer was required by all the resource colony types but not yet used, and this seems to have no effect, even when I restarted the game.

Any clues? Anyone else encounter this?

[grumbler]

Also, I am curious if anyone else thinks the engine system needs an overhaul?

I have modded engines for my own use, increasing the size of the engines to make the larger ships less impossible to design/calculate reactor requirments for, but was wondering if anyone else thinks that the whole system needs and overhaul to reduce choices and make the ship design sequence a bit more intuitive? If not, I will just use my mods for me and leave the topic alone on the board.

[pathfinder]

Grumbler: Don't care one way or the other myself. Don't have a clue as to how to do it. Hope what you do doesn't break other things that I did to get rid of the RCE's.

[ June 15, 2003, 14:46: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

[pathfinder]

Oh and bTW Grumbler....Spaceports are an "ability" of trading Posts, colony hubs and manufacturing colonies. There are no separate space ports.

[ June 15, 2003, 14:51: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

[grumbler]

Sorry, PF, I meant to have the AI built Trading Posts without having to change any AI files.

Turns out the AI will build TP as the second facility when you add "scanner jammer" as an ability to TP and also (this is what I forgot to do) change the number of abilities to 10!

They only do this, of course, if there is no SP cabability already in the system.

As for the engines, I don't propose any changes in the basic system (which I like a lot) just in the numbers of engines needed to reach a given speed. In other words, do things like double every value so that one new engine does the work of two old ones (and maybe have some quad-sized engines so the old Agamamnon has more like 4 engines as in the series rather than 16!)

One thing we might want to consider at some point is having single "reactor" tech rather than the four we have now. It clutter up the ship design ccreen to have obsolete components presented, which seems inevitable with the seperate techs. However, that would change the AI_Research files, so we don't wanna do it until we are changing them for somethning else anyway.

[ June 15, 2003, 16:31: Message edited by: grumbler ]

[Timstone]

Hmm... Grumbler, that is an excelent idea! Yes, I like it, why didn't I thought about that! Hmm... I'll implement it into 2.0. Thanks for the idea.

Edit: Ehh... you don't mind when I use your idea and implent it into 2.0? Hope not.

[ June 15, 2003, 16:33: Message edited by: Timstone ]

[Suicide Junkie]

As for the engines, I don't propose any changes in the basic system (which I like a lot) just in the numbers of engines needed to reach a given speed. In other words, do things like double every value so that one new engine does the work of two old ones (and maybe have some quad-sized engines so the old Agamamnon has more like 4 engines as in the series rather than 16!)

Doubling the engine thrust will cause problems with the 255 MP limit.
Halving the Engines-per-move of all the hulls would prevent that problem, but would give you some rounding errors.

I took over as a replacement in the B5mod game on PBW, and I think the speeds are perfectly fine as is...

I have 5 MP warships, and 13(!) MP scouts.
I'm pretty sure the speed scale of this game is intentional, and quite fair.

Also, considering the speed of colony development, having slow warship speeds is a very good idea IMO.

[Timstone]

Hmm... maybe I was too fast on your idea Grumbler. Let us consider.

Q: Why do we have all the reactors in different flavours?
A: Well, you need different tech for each one of them.
Q: Why not put them into one big group?
A: Well, not every reactor is the same. One reactor might have a greater energy output, but is also a bit larger than it's predecessor. That way you have to make a choice between energy and tonnage-efficiency.

Maybe the idea to put them into one big group wasn't good idea after all. Hmm... I'm abit confused wether this might be a good idea or not. I mean, it's easier to put them into one group, but it's also a bit more clumsier to pick the right one for the job. I sometimes use older types of reactor even when I have newer reactors at my disposal. It's also more difficult for us to sort out which reactor is better than the one before (you must give the computer a clue which one is the weakest and which one is the best). Please people give your opinion on this interesting idea.

Edit: Ehh.. I might have made a little booboo. I asked IF to redo the sensors, but it was actually SJ who did an outstanding job on his armor. So, SJ, would you like to redo the sensors too? Sorry for the little confusion, my apologies.

[ June 15, 2003, 16:49: Message edited by: Timstone ]

[pathfinder]

The different reactors are basically to be somewhat "canon" and to give some differentiation (having all races with same old same old, well gets old...quick.

[Suicide Junkie]

So, SJ, would you like to redo the sensors too? Sorry for the little confusion, my apologies.

What changes were you looking for, anyways?