Babylon 5 Mod

[Fyron]

Still, analysis is analysis, and the biggest headache remaining is the components.txt file, and that is not Version-specific.

Yes it is. You have to add Drone on a lot of vehicle and targeting type fields in Components.txt for Gold.

[grumbler]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:
Yes it is. You have to add Drone on a lot of vehicle and targeting type fields in Components.txt for Gold.

True, but that's just a simple search and replace operation. Takes but minutes. It's not like the AI files which have multiple changes (added lines) to each file.

I would be better for Tim's Version to be Gold, of course, but then the fact that it isn't leaves room for my Gold mod Version 2.0!

[Timstone]

Well because I wanted to eliminate the hopelessly chaotic stuff in the components.txt (one of the main reasons to begin work on 2.0), I went about differently. But that will be seen in 2.0 when it is ready maybe you'll like it, maybe not. Time will tell.
Work is proceding again in good order, the setback of yesterday is almost completely repaired. But some of the tings new in .33 (in relation to .30) are easily included in 2.0.
Yes, also the Trading Port was in .33, haha. Thanks anyway Grumbler.

[Timstone]

Grumbler: My Version is Gold. But I used the non gold Version as a basis for it all. I just forgot to install the latset (the least old) Version of it.

Another question for you. I have read through your AI Facilities Construction File. I see you haven't used the COlony Hub anywhere. So there is actually noi point in keeping it in the mod now is there. I see it as an "quick" to build Version of the Homeworld Hub.
The way I see it, is that there must be a main structure in the colony and seconday buildings to define the function of a colony. A few examples (these examples are only for the Standard races):

Homeworld
Main: Homeworld Hub
Secondary: anything

Manufacturing Colony
Main: Manufacturing Colony
Secondary: Depot, Resource Extraction

Military Installation
Main: Military Outpost (or Adv. Military outpost)
Secondary: Listening Post

Mining/Farming Colony
Main: Trading Port (or Colony Hub)
Secondary: Resource Extraction

Intel Compound
Main: Military Outpost (or Adv. Military outpost)
Secondary: Intelligence buildings

Research Campus
Main: Trading Port (or Colony Hub)
Secondary: Research buildings

Construction Yard
Main: Ship Yard
Secondary: Depot, Resource Extraction

In other words, I want to have each building a specific task in the colony. I'm worried that if that isn't done a lot of buildings go unused. Furthermore, how is the Homeworld (very, very, very important planet coz of the slow construction of new colonies) put together? Does it contain a Homeworld Hub or a Trading Post as main building? If the Trading Post is the main building, shouldn't you give the Homeworld Hub the "palace" insignia?
Only the main buildings get the Space Yard option (the Space Yard facility the best of course).

[grumbler]

Originally posted by Timstone:
Another question for you. I have read through your AI Facilities Construction File. I see you haven't used the COlony Hub anywhere. So there is actually noi point in keeping it in the mod now is there. I see it as an "quick" to build Version of the Homeworld Hub.

True. The Colony Hub isn't used right now by the AI (but could be used by human players, though I never do). Frankly, it is a bit of "do everything that the colony already does, but at great cost."

The way I see it, is that there must be a main structure in the colony and seconday buildings to define the function of a colony. A few examples (these examples are only for the Standard races):

[examples snipped]

In other words, I want to have each building a specific task in the colony. I'm worried that if that isn't done a lot of buildings go unused.

Well, this is true for the human player, but for the AI the plan is a bit different: the Ai needs to be programmed to build the next building which is "most efficient."

As way to get around this is to make the AI build a larger number of different colonies, like "Huge World Agricultural Colony," "Small World Agricultural Colony," "Medium World Research Colony" and the like from the _AI_Planet_Types file and then make a custom Faciliyies build list for each type. I think I could do this if that's the route you want to take. It would make the AI a lot "smarter" in terms of the colonies it ends up with.

Furthermore, how is the Homeworld (very, very, very important planet coz of the slow construction of new colonies) put together? Does it contain a Homeworld Hub or a Trading Post as main building? If the Trading Post is the main building, shouldn't you give the Homeworld Hub the "palace" insignia?

The Homeworld as designed right now gets filled by the setup process, so the Facilities list in the AI_Contruction_Facilities file seems a bit redundent. There is no need for the Trading Port on the homeworld because the HH already has a spaceport (and note, importantly, that Natural Merchants do not get a homeworld hub!)

You cannot put "palace" on the HH because then the IA would try to build HHs first thing on the first planet of every system, and so the system would have no spaceport for many many years. The palace ability should be left to the trading ports only. The downside to this is that the first colony in the home system will build a trading port needlessly in order to get the palace ability, but this is something we can live with, I think.

[Timstone]

Ah yes, now I see.
So, the homeworld "loses" one building spot for the sake of the Trading Port. And needlessly creates 2 buildings with the Spaceport ability. Well, that's certainly something we can all live with.
Okay, here's what I'll do. I delete the Colony Hub (it's useless with the Trading Port around) and I'll incorporate the Trading Port.
But, I'm going to change the main buildings to the roles I thought out for them in my Last post.

Great work Grumbler. This is much more productive than I thought. This really helping me a lot.
I was so arrogant and fed up with the state of the B5Mod that I thought I could make the next Version of The Mod on my own. I would do it in a really short time. Yeah, sure... not. I've come a long way without help from people (I wanted it that way), but now the release of the first testVersion is drawing nearer and nearer I see it is a hell of a job to set up and do. Thanks again evenryone for their help, support, recomendations and requests.

Edit01:
Oops, alright, I jumped the gun too soon with my thanks to Grumbler, hehehe...
I entered the whole thing (Palace to Trading Port), but it seems that Gold doesn't know that term. Now what?

Edit02: Sigh, sometimes it really shows when I've been too long behind my computer (read: laptop). I've been doing 3D programming (for work) and analysing structures for about 12 hours now. I complained about the Palace thingie. Well, I've corrected it and now SE4: Gold eats it. Hope it works. I'll report back tommorrow. Today I'm turning in very early. Tommorrow I see my GF again. Ah, sweet dreams...

P.S. Sorry about the mess in this message.

[ July 07, 2003, 18:15: Message edited by: Timstone ]

[Timstone]

Okay, I couldn't resist to work on The Mod again after dinner.
I've been fiddling with those facilities, but I can't make them work properly. The Palace "tag" isn't working. I've tried every possible combination to make it work.

grumbler: Would you like to think this idea over? I can't seem to make it work on my computer.

everyone: I want the computer to place a Homeworld Hub on every homeworld I start with (1, 3, 5 or 10) and on every colony the AI must begin building a Trading post first (not a Homeworld Hub). What the heck should I do to make this system work?! Grumbler worked out a possible system, but I doens't work at my computer (and yes I followed his instructions to the letter).

[grumbler]

Originally posted by Timstone:
Okay, I couldn't resist to work on The Mod again after dinner.
I've been fiddling with those facilities, but I can't make them work properly. The Palace "tag" isn't working. I've tried every possible combination to make it work.

grumbler: Would you like to think this idea over? I can't seem to make it work on my computer.

Look in your Abilities.txt file and make sure "Palace" is listed. It should be right after Spaceport. If it isn't there, paste in

Palace
Value1 =
Value2 =

and try it again. It works just great in my setup. What error message are you getting? Do all the AIs have the correct [Racename]_AI_Construction_facility.txt file? Try moving all the race-specific [Racename]_AI_Construction_facility.txt file out of their folders under "pictures/races/[racename] into a temporary folder, and make sure the default_AI_Construction_facility.txt file (in the AI folder) is the correct one, and see if that works.

I'd need more data to troubleshoot beyond that.

everyone: I want the computer to place a Homeworld Hub on every homeworld I start with (1, 3, 5 or 10) and on every colony the AI must begin building a Trading post first (not a Homeworld Hub). What the heck should I do to make this system work?! Grumbler worked out a possible system, but I doens't work at my computer (and yes I followed his instructions to the letter).

The Homeworld bit will work so long as it is either a spaceport or a refuelling station or both, as the AI will place the best facilities that give each of those capabilities. If it has both, then no seperate facility is needed to provide them.

[ July 07, 2003, 23:19: Message edited by: grumbler ]

[Suicide Junkie]

Abilities.txt is not read by the game...
It is merely a reference file for modders, like the history and readme.txt files.

[Timstone]

Ah yes, a good night it was. It's amazing how refresshing a bit of sleep can be.

Okay, I'll post here waht I've done.

Name := Homeworld Hub I
Description :=
Facility Group := Hub
Facility Family := 1
Roman Numeral := 1
Restrictions := None
Pic Num := 68
Cost Minerals := 95355
Cost Organics := 27740
Cost Radioactives := 27270
Number of Tech Req := 0
Number of Abilities := 20
Ability 1 Type := Planet - Shield Generation
Ability 1 Descr := Generates 5000 points of shielding for the planet during combat.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 5000
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Ability 2 Type := Resource Generation - Minerals
Ability 2 Descr := Mines 1000 minerals each turn.
Ability 2 Val 1 := 1000
Ability 2 Val 2 := 0
Ability 3 Type := Resource Generation - Radioactives
Ability 3 Descr := Extracts 500 radioactives each turn.
Ability 3 Val 1 := 500
Ability 3 Val 2 := 0
Ability 4 Type := Resource Generation - Organics
Ability 4 Descr := Colony generates 500 organics per turn.
Ability 4 Val 1 := 500
Ability 4 Val 2 := 0
Ability 5 Type := Point Generation - Research
Ability 5 Descr := Generates 500 research points each turn.
Ability 5 Val 1 := 500
Ability 5 Val 2 := 0
Ability 6 Type := Point Generation - Intelligence
Ability 6 Descr := Generates 500 intelligence points each turn.
Ability 6 Val 1 := 500
Ability 6 Val 2 := 0
Ability 7 Type := Spaceport
Ability 7 Descr := Acts as a spaceport for this system.
Ability 7 Val 1 := 0
Ability 7 Val 2 := 0
Ability 8 Type := Cargo Storage
Ability 8 Descr := Provides 5000 extra cargo spaces.
Ability 8 Val 1 := 5000
Ability 8 Val 2 := 0
Ability 9 Type := Resource Storage - Mineral
Ability 9 Descr := Can store 50000 minerals for the Empire.
Ability 9 Val 1 := 50000
Ability 9 Val 2 := 0
Ability 10 Type := Resource Storage - Organics
Ability 10 Descr := Can store 50000 organics for the Empire.
Ability 10 Val 1 := 50000
Ability 10 Val 2 := 0
Ability 11 Type := Resource Storage - Radioactives
Ability 11 Descr := Can store 50000 radioactives for the Empire.
Ability 11 Val 1 := 50000
Ability 11 Val 2 := 0
Ability 12 Type := Supply Generation
Ability 12 Descr := Can generate unlimited supplies each turn for ships.
Ability 12 Val 1 := 0
Ability 12 Val 2 := 0
Ability 13 Type := Space Yard
Ability 13 Descr := Can construct with 1000 minerals per turn.
Ability 13 Val 1 := 1
Ability 13 Val 2 := 1000
Ability 14 Type := Space Yard
Ability 14 Descr := Can construct with 1000 organics per turn.
Ability 14 Val 1 := 2
Ability 14 Val 2 := 1000
Ability 15 Type := Space Yard
Ability 15 Descr := Can construct with 1000 radioactives per turn.
Ability 15 Val 1 := 3
Ability 15 Val 2 := 1000
Ability 16 Type := Change Population Happiness - System
Ability 16 Descr := The presense of the Homeworld provides the system with a bonus to their happiness.
Ability 16 Val 1 := 2
Ability 16 Val 2 := 0
Ability 17 Type := System Point Generation Modifier - Research
Ability 17 Descr := Increase all research in a system by 10% (only 1 facility per system effective).
Ability 17 Val 1 := 10
Ability 17 Val 2 := 0
Ability 18 Type := Reduced Maintenance Cost - System
Ability 18 Descr := Reduces all vehicle maintenance costs in the system by 15% (only 1 facility per system effective).
Ability 18 Val 1 := 15
Ability 18 Val 2 := 0
Ability 19 Type := Change Bad Event Chance - System
Ability 19 Descr := Decreases the chance of any bad events in this system (only 1 facility per system effective).
Ability 19 Val 1 := -30
Ability 19 Val 2 := 0
Ability 20 Type := Combat Modifier - System
Ability 20 Descr := When fighting to defend their homewworld system, ships receive a 20% Combat bonus.
Ability 20 Val 1 := 20
Ability 20 Val 2 := 0

Name := Trading Port I
Description :=
Facility Group := Hub
Facility Family := 2
Roman Numeral := 1
Restrictions := None
Pic Num := 2
Cost Minerals := 9050
Cost Organics := 1860
Cost Radioactives := 2550
Number of Tech Req := 0
Number of Abilities := 3
Ability 1 Type := Planet - Shield Generation
Ability 1 Descr := Generates 1000 points of shielding for the planet during combat.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 1000
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Ability 2 Type := Spaceport
Ability 2 Descr := Acts as a spaceport for this system.
Ability 2 Val 1 := 0
Ability 2 Val 2 := 0
Ability 3 Type := Palace
Ability 3 Descr :=
Ability 3 Val 1 := 1
Ability 3 Val 2 := 0

I want the starting planets (the planets you get in the beginning) to have 1 Homeworld Hub. And the rest of the planets (the planets you colonize) to start with a Trading Port. That's all. Grumbler, you say you have it working on your computer, but mine is stubborn as Hell. Any idea's?