Babylon 5 Mod

[Timstone]

Originally posted by grumbler:
I like the process very much, but it doesn't answer some of my fundamental questions, like
1) Should lasers outrange plasma cannons? In SD the Alexander fires at the Roanoke using plasma cannons (I think that's what the weapons were, unless they were pulse cannons) right at the start, but has to close the range "right down their throats" before firing her lasers.
2) Are we assuming that the interceptors used to stop plasma/pulse cannon attacks are incorporated into the ECM system? But then how to explain B5's use of the interceptors offensively against the "Roanoke"? And how to account for fighters used as interceptor both against missiles (as shown explicitly in Endgame) and, from what JMS has said, implicitly against plasma/pulse attacks?
3) No missiles are ever shown (AFAICR) being fired by ships? Why not?

Note that I lack the B5 Wars books, so I have only series canon to go on with this, but since we are trying to match the series and not the books, I feel a need to see some discussion on this. The stuff in the early days of this thread seemed to be entirely between people who had the B5W books.

Oh, and there is one correction I would make to your instructions, Tim. Before you can edit the weapons file to make it suitable for inclusion in compnents.txt, you need to paste it in the notepad. You cannot edit the clipboard viewer (I know, 'cause I tried). So there is a step left out.

Because you lack the B5 Wars books, you didn't know there are some important data included there. But if you read carefully and give some test input on my sheet, you can see it from the sheet itself.
Range is determined by the damage deterioration. And that is included in the B5 Wars books.

The sheet I made doesn't give answers on the vehicles a weapon can be mounted, nor does it give answer to the question what target it can fire upon. I must set clear standards for that yet. I have good idea's, but they need to be typed out first.

In the beginning (when I came up with the idea to make 2.0), I explained why I wanted to use the B5 Wars books and not the series as the blueprint for 2.0.
1) The series are very contradictory, what can be done in one episode can't be done in another. Don't ask me for examples, but I'm sure there are such instances.
2) The B5 Wars books are already invented, they represent a gaming system that already has proven itself. Why invent the wheel again?!
3) The data from the books is easily translated into SE IV "language".

Hold in mind that the B5 Wars Books show generalisation. A good explanation for statement 1) is that every race has it's own weaponery, it's own modifications to it. So they perform different. Maybe the ship's captain has altered it's weaponery somewhat, who knows.
Anyway I wanted to adopt the B5 Wars books mainly because of statement 2) and 3). I'm a lazy type of guy.

Thanks for the comment on the instructions. I use a Dutch Version of XP, so I don't know the English names too well. It will be altered.

Anything else?

P.S. Thanks for the comments Grumbler. I salute you.

Edit: Typo's, damn them!!

[ March 02, 2004, 07:42: Message edited by: Timstone ]

[Antarian]

Hi. It`s been a while since my Last visit...
Any update on the mod status? Is it way down the hill or what? What have you run out of people? Fun? Money? Time? Luck? Human resources? About a month ago a was in NY and bought 3 seasons of the show! Dudes, that`s the stuuuuffff. Plenti of data to use. Images to extract and etc. But you also do have those DVDs. But you still seem to have no inspiration? Or am i mistaken?
P.S. Excuse my poor english, typos and so on. Not native to eng-speaking countries.

[Timstone]

We're still somewhat busy on the mod, but real life takes it's toll. I must regret to say we still haven't got anything to download yet. Well, exept for some mysterious help files.
My best advise is to sit tight and wait for another update.

[Antarian]

Greetings again. Is it possible to answer the following questions:
1) Who is responsible for mod development now?
2) Who is Val and where is he now? (After his... hm... departure mt erythinig is on a halt.)
3) On what stage is the mod now?
4) Who has the latest files?
5) What do you need in order to finish the mod?
6) Why not update at least one site about this mod?
Thanx.

[pathfinder]

Originally posted by Antarian:
Greetings again. Is it possible to answer the following questions:
1) Who is responsible for mod development now?
2) Who is Val and where is he now? (After his... hm... departure mt erythinig is on a halt.)
3) On what stage is the mod now?
4) Who has the latest files?
5) What do you need in order to finish the mod?
6) Why not update at least one site about this mod?
Thanx.

1-Timstone (MOD 2).
2-Val was originator of MOD, disappeared around November 2002
3-MOD 1 (Val Version) complete ((mostly)
4-Search the new mod forum for the files. OR search this thread....I posted them back in June 2003
5-*shrug* In my opoinion is done except for a few bugs and some weapons balancing
6-This site/thread is updated with the latest of MOD 1.

[ March 04, 2004, 21:53: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

[solops]

ModCore Version 30 of the Bab 5 Mod is available for download at http://www.xmission.com/~rstulce/B5Web.htm for both SEIV 1.49 and SEIV Gold.

However, three additional updates are also available bringing it up to Update33.

BUT no comment is made on whether these are compatible with both SEIV Gold and SEIV 1.49. Since the mod was originally for SEIV 1.49 there is some question as to the updates’ Gold compatibility.

Can anyone clarify this?

[grumbler]

While we are awaiting the new weapons contents of the components file (and I cannot help with that as I have none of the B5 Wars books), I thought it might be useful to discuss the way in which the mod should address the “found techs.” These, right now, are:

20 - Cure for Nano-Plague
21 - Great Machine
22 - Ship Automation
23 - Stellar Balancer
24 - Ancient Neurotech
25 - Ancient Atmospheric Adjuster
26 - Unique Ship Class
27 - Universal Colonizer

20, 21, 23, 24, 25 and 27 have been implemented. I have never seen a use for 23, but that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen. The rest seem to work as designed (once you correct the GM cannon to be a planetary vice ship weapon).

22, Ship Automation, COULD be implemented by allowing the discoverer to build Shadow-like CPUs, but this seems very much against the canon. Is there any way to have such a component count as two crew quarters and two life support? I haven’t been able to make that work.

24, Ancient Neurotech, can be implemented by creating a new series of facilities that have advantages over existing facilities. Since the description is “Allows your race to create a neural link to enhance research” I created “Neurotech Research Centers” in my mod of the mod to provide enhanced research capabilities. The downside to them in my Version is that you have to progress in both Neurotech and Research before you can upgrade a NRF... but that seems to work out as well.

26, Unique Ship Class, is a bit harder. It is described as “Allows your race to create more unique class of ship based on the wreckage” but the concept of “more unique” is a bit baffling! I have tried two approaches:
1. Each class of ship now has an “advanced” Version of it, and a la the Whitestars and (possibly) the Warlocks, the “advanced” Version has limited self-repair (one component per turn up to BC, then 2 per turn up to SD, and then 3 for larger). Perhaps a speed bonus could go with it.
2. There is a “unique” hull for each basic ship type (subdestroyers, destroyers, cruisers, battleships, dreadnoughts, baseships, etc) that is built of advanced materials, or whatever, and so has an engine per ton ratio of 1 to 60 instead of 1 to 50.
The disadvantage of the first approach is that I cannot get the AI to use it. The disadvantage of the second approach it that it reduces the variation of ships produced once the tech is discovered.

I would also make two other changes to the unique techs:
1. Make Shadow tech and Vorlon tech (or maybe just the former) discoverable.
2. Make the actual discoverable tech “Cure for Nano-Plague Clues,” “Great Machine Clues,” etc, with the clues simply opening the tech area for research. This makes it the responsibility of the player to decide when to start research into these areas (the AI can be told to research them as a priority), and it also prevents the player from getting level 2 or 3 techs by finding the same tech multiple times.

I have also found that the Stellar Abilities file needs to be updated to allow all of the unique techs, but I will hold off on posting a proposed mod until we reach a consensus on what the unique techs should be.

Thoughts?

[Timstone]

Hah, it's great to have you around here Grumbler. I really apreciate all the thinking you do.

The books, no sweat mister. Let's put some sort of roster; who does what.

I say, I make weapons. And the divide them into the proper family, I also would like to take the facilities under my wing.

The rest is out for the grabs.

I will come up with some more rules for the weapons. I won't do all the races in one go, that would be far too much work for one person (I want to implement about 42 races). So I want to include only a few races in the first release of 2.0, I'll see later which races and how many.
If somebody can help me with the rest, please do. I would really appreciate that.


Question: What about the great machine? How should I implement it?

[pathfinder]

Originally posted by solops:
ModCore Version 30 of the Bab 5 Mod is available for download at http://www.xmission.com/~rstulce/B5Web.htm for both SEIV 1.49 and SEIV Gold.

However, three additional updates are also available bringing it up to Update33.

BUT no comment is made on whether these are compatible with both SEIV Gold and SEIV 1.49. Since the mod was originally for SEIV 1.49 there is some question as to the updates’ Gold compatibility.

Can anyone clarify this?

I guess best thing to do is install these and be sure:

Data files for B5 Gold:

1055128545.zip

[ March 07, 2004, 19:48: Message edited by: pathfinder ]

[Nomor]

Dear All

A recent trawl of the internet on B5 matters came up with the returned http://www.frostjedi.com/vex/
or Voltayre's Encyclopedia Xenobiologica.

I spent some time checking our own histories of races and could not find anything that showed our 1,49 races to be in error, yet.

This site my be of use to those working on the Ancients and other lesser known races.

Regarding recent topics; I can't help but feel that these issues may well have been what caused Val to implode and disappear from this forum.

Please be careful Timstone .

Who is Val and where is he now? Did we really ever know?

Back to lurkerland....