Babylon 5 Mod

[TNZ]

Could I suggest that the Babylon 5 Mod Version 2.0 be moved to its own discussion thread so that ideas can be posted and discussed in a more constructive way.

[grumbler]

Originally posted by Ragnarok-X:
Uhm Grumbler, my post was not directed at you, and i i didnt meant to offend anyone !

If I sounded offended, I assure you that it was unintentional. We can use all the help we can get.

Anyway, i think you cant find out how the weapon with the longest range for each race is called.

It would require going through the components file and listing all the weapons thta have the following target types:
Satellite,
Ship\Base\Sat,
Ship\Base\Sat\WeapPlat\Drone,
All

Instead, why not make damage by satellites dimishing with each square ? IE. 50% of the range the weapon has 100% damage, and each square after the 50% the damage is reduced by 20% or whatever. That would in fact half the damage at full range. In addition, long range weapons will have hit problems at maximum range, since each square reduced to hit by 10%.

I am not SURE that there is a problem overall. I just want to see if there is a problem with specific races. As far as I can tell in a quick look, for instance, the Minbari have no weapons that can touch a satellite more than 5 spaces away, which means a fair number of turns taking damage without being able to respond... but we need to know.

As you can see from this thread, there is no consensus on whether or not atellites are too powerful per se, and my tendency is to make the fewest changes possible to all the thought and work that has gone into the mod so far.

The simplest thing to do is just balance the weapons, rather than change the settings or the AI or the nature of satellites.

[grumbler]

Tim,

Big email on components. Time to start battling this dragon!

It took me a little longer than I had expected to make the fighter supply issue work out, but once I realized that the solution was to make their weapons use no supplies, it all fell in to place.

[jimbob]

Everyone: With regards to the satelite issue:

from the play test it seemed to me to be a problem. The paucity of weapons that could hit satelites (for the minor races) was a real head-ache for me. Actually, it seemed beyond reasonable but perhaps I was more sensitive to the problem at the time

That said, the satelites always had more range than my "satelite targeting" weapons did, and at the highest tech levels had much much more range than I did (I think they had 5 or 6 more range than I did, which meant I lost half my fleet before I even got my first volley in). As Grumbler calculated:

I have looked at sat-ship combat, and it seems that at a given tech level satellites are about three times as valuable on a per-ton basis than ships. Part of the problem is that there seem to be few long-ranged weapons able to hit satellites, while satellites have a lots of long-range weapons that can hit ships.

My humble opinion is that, from the beta test, the satelites are too powerful. That plus the fact that they are not limited to planets (see uses at warp points for example) means that the key argument is not completely accurate. Perhaps introducing a powerful weapon platform and calling it a "lower orbit satelite defense system" is the answer. This would allow for a better planetary defense, without exporting the uber-powerful satelites to places like warp points. However, that would be a lot of work.... I'd be satisfied with more long range weapons that can touch satelites.

Really loving the mod guys, keep up the work!


Alneyan: good point regarding the crippling effect of making the CQuarters boarding parties!

-Jim

[ April 26, 2004, 02:45: Message edited by: jimbob ]

[jimbob]

Grumbler: you said something along the lines of "I was so pround when I figured out a way to make non-useful techs "invisible" to a race, but aghast when i found that it made them unavailable to every race. It is hard to make tech work corectly."

What exactly did you mean by "invisible?" I think I have some ideas on this problem.

cheers
Jim

[Atrocities]

I need two things. I need someone to make the AI for the Alliance including the general file, and I need Race Portrait images for the set.

Any one wishing to take this on please email me at atrocities@astmod.com

The ship set is complete.

[Timstone]

Grumbler:
I've received your e-mail. I'll read it tomorrow at work (naughty isn't it?). Thanks!

AT:
Great set, thanks for letting the B5 Mod using it. I'm no good with AI files. Never messed around with them.

[Suicide Junkie]

Regarding satellites:

Long range is nessesary, since the sats themselves can't move.

Instead, reduce the damage/kt/turn of sat weapons.
Perhaps by that 3x factor you mentioned.

[Nomor]

Game play question: If I remember correctly if a planet rebelled against it's original homeworld you got a generic bmp of what looked like an angry group of Mohawk Simpson's. Is it possible to have race specific pictures for rebelled planets.

For humans we could use President Clark or Bester etc
For Minbari we could use the general Shakiri who tried to replace Delenn
For the Centauri we could use one of Vir Cotto or Lord Refa ...

There are bmp pictures for most of the main races that could be used to represent rebelled/independent races, without resorting to the SEIV standard.

Can it be done? Do we want to?

[Atrocities]

Oops, The Alliance

Not yet ready for download. This race can be used for B5 mod exclusively, but it is also my Atrocitonian race. (Name Pending until I come up with something better.)

[ April 26, 2004, 12:05: Message edited by: Atrocities ]