Babylon 5 Mod

[grumbler]

Tim,

You don't have to put everything in one structure, now that I think it through. You can ignore spaceyard abilities for the start of the colony, as the default colony build rate is 2,000. What you need are "added abilities" at your 6th, 11th, 16th, and 21st structures, to corespond with increasing abilities as planets get bigger.

Somethin I found in a recent test game is that the current system of having very small populations sent with the colony modules is very much inferior to having larger populations (say 50 or even 100) as the AI so seldom (maybe never?)sends out population transports to its colonies. Just make the colony mod bigger and more expensive (so that the AI doesn't deplete the home planet population too much) and I think the AI will be much stronger.

In my test case, I gave the Minbari a colony mod that carried 100 pop. After 100 turns, they had more than three times the points of any other standard race - and had three times the research rate of the ancient races!

[Timstone]

Okay, I'll change the pop of the colony modules to 50. I'll also see what I'll change about the facilities. Maybe I just leave them the way they are. After some playtesting by other people (and of course you and me) we'll tweak them.

Grumbler: What about the RacialTraits.txt I send you? I'm really would like to know what you think of it and if the spelling of the Phonetic stuff is right.

[grumbler]

Tim,

the only questions your RacialTraits.txt raised for me were the following:

[URF A-lai-jans] I think you have a typo here, or something.

[DRAA-see] I am pretty sure that even the Drazi use the "zee" sound and not the "ess"

[IP-sjaa] I am not sure how to pronounce this phonetic spelling (the "sj" sound). I also don't recall anyone ever saying the name, so i don't know how close you are to "canon."

I would add to the Narn they they are primarily using Centauri-designed or derived weapons.

[SJAA-doo] Again, the "sj" sound. Also, the second syllable is definatly the "doh" sound vice "doo".

You also dupe the Yolu at the end.

[Timstone]

Haha... you Americans can't pronounce the "sj" sound? Haha... strange people are aound the world. I designed the phonetic stuff to be readable by Dutch people in particulary and was hoping that the tones were more or less the same for English speaking people. I'll change the ones you said were strange. Oh, and what was wrong with the Yolu?

Edit: Never mind about the Yolu, I've discovered that one.

The reason I haven't filled in all the empty slots with a full descriptions is that I haven't got the books (yet) to fill them with appropriate info.

[ July 28, 2003, 08:56: Message edited by: Timstone ]

[jimbob]

could you add a new racial trait "computer player"? Then you could add in the technologies you need to make the computer "smart" without changing the components used by all.

Now I'm not suggesting that any components be added to this tech tree that would give an unfair advantage to the computer (and so it wouldn't matter if a human player actually chose this racial trait), but you could do things like a customized sized colony component (with larger volume and subsequently higher price) to "force/coherce" the computer into being smarter. I don't know if this would be worthwhile for just the colonization problem, but it seems to me that there were a number of other AI intelligence issues that may be solved this way.

Timstone: Oh yeah, well "sj" you too!

[ July 28, 2003, 17:59: Message edited by: jimbob ]

[Timstone]

Well, it's good idea. But the downside of it would be that I would hvae to duplicate the whole contens of the mod. Also that problem isn't that big or difficult, but it would take time. Also I would have to implement 48 new racialtraits. Now that is a hell of a job. Implement both the computer controled racialtraits and the duplication of all the facilities, components, cover ops, etc. One big job. Till now the mod is holding up great and with good AI makers like Pathfinder and all the others at this board, I think it would be a bit of a big job to do rightout. I tell you what if there will be more voices about this idea, I'll try to implement it into the next Version (2.1), alright?

edit: Oh, I would need to implement 48 new racialtraits because of the various racial based facilities.

[ July 28, 2003, 18:08: Message edited by: Timstone ]

[Fyron]

edit: Oh, I would need to implement 48 new racialtraits because of the various racial based facilities.

Actually, if it is just adding AI Versions, you can give the AI facilities an extra tech req and have all the AIs use the same trait.

Also, you only need to add extra Versions of those items that would need changes to make the AI smarter. Otherwise, there is no point in making a duplicate of them.

[ July 28, 2003, 19:50: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Suicide Junkie]

Originally posted by Timstone:
Walkers of Sigma 957
Extradimensional armor (they've traveled everywhere)

Kirishiac Lords
Gravitic armor (undisputed masters of gravitic technology)

Torvalus
Good question, I really wouldn't know.

Mindriders
Telepatic armor (beings of pure energy and thought)

Triad (all factions)
Very strong conventional armor (they can construct matter out of anything)

Shadows
Organic armor (need I say more?)

Vorlons
organic armor (shees, why do I write this?)

If you have some cool ideas, please do, the more ideas the better. I have all convidence in you. Give yourself a carte blanche.

Preliminary stats:
Vorlon Active Armor - size 2, hp 50. Cost 40/80/40
5 crystalline points, 20 OA regen

Shadows - same but 20 CA, and 5 OA.

Triad - Size 5, hp 50, Cost 40/20/120
10 OA, 5 CA, Is Armor.

Mindriders - Suggested: -999% to hit on their ship hulls, since they have little to no physical form?

[ July 28, 2003, 23:48: Message edited by: Suicide Junkie ]

[Fyron]

Triad - Size 5, hp 5, Cost 40/20/120
10 OA, 5 CA, Is Armor.

So it can regenerate 2x itself every turn. Isn't that a tad overkill?

[Suicide Junkie]

That should be 50 hp