Babylon 5 Mod

[brianeyci]

I saw B5 when I was 14, I think I watched the whole of season 4 by the time I was 16. Awesome show, the best SF series on television IMO... actually a reason to watch, watching B5 and Star Trek is like night and day, one focuses on a continuing storyline that makes you want to watch... I didn't mind if I missed a couple of ST episodes, but missing my B5... heh heh I wish I had DVD's of them... now I don't have cable anymore so oh well. =D

[brianeyci]

I just took a quick peek at the mod. Before I say anything, I'd like to acknowledge that a lot of people probably put a lot of hard work into the mod and deserve kudos =D

Now that that's over with... a quick glance and I could find spelling mistakes, missing fields in component details and so forth. What's more sad is the lack of background and detail to the races. There's no description, and the facilities seem generic. I took a quick look at a couple races, and they didn't seem to be what I expected. Minbari are scientists rather than religious zealots? Humans are scientists rather than merchants? Sheridan the leader of the humans rather than a pic of Pres. Clark? hrm... also I couldn't find the B5 map, and playing on a randomly generated map doesn't seem to have the same glitz... I'm also pretty new to SE:IV, so I don't know what the scenario button is for, but are "scenarios" missions? In that case, the inclusion of scenarios mirroring certain points in the B5 season... The Great War, the Earth/Minbari war, Shadows vs Vorlons, perhaps with small systems and limited turns/goals would make the mod fun...

Unfortunately, I'd have to say I'm disappointed in the mod... as this is the first mod I've run, I don't really think I can judge it... it might be a really well worked out mod compared to others... but the lack of B5 lore is pretty disappointing... I'm not really a B5 fanatic but the reason why I would play B5 or ST or SW or anything other than the stock game is not for balance issues, but to be immersed in the universe...

Oh well. Maybe it is fun, maybe the AI's are cool/smart maybe it is well balanced etc... but, playing AI's is not what I got SE:IV for, and if I want balanced I'll play the stock =D.

Brian

[Timstone]

Great post Grumbler. Good to hear from you again.
Thumbs up for you my friend!

[Raging Deadstar]

I Have to agree with some of the points here. So here's some Suggestions.

Shipsets - Some of them aren't that good i'll be honest. I've been searching the internet for decent pictures of Earth Alliance ships (mainly 3d model renders) for a personal shipset and they're coming out quite well. If i can get pemission to use them in a Public released set i'll send them to you. I'm also thinking of doing the same for the Minbari/Narn/Centauri. Also I'm pretty sure a lot of us could contribute by creating biological/social/history descriptions for the empires while leaving the major modding stuff to the main team.

The Mod Itself. I'm not that keen on many of the component pictures but thats just me The Main problem and let down so far is the rather slow gameplay. I would personally prefer a faster game. Maybe use FQM's scale of population to balance off the huge space cargo bays have and allow empires to develop quickly. For Players who think B5 games shouldn't be about huge massive empires set it up to play "Players can only colonise Breathable planets" or something. All races should have simmilar tech for basic facilities like Mineral Miners and such but each race should have their own facilities and bonuses depending on their race.

Earth Alliance:
Intelligence Centers - Nightwatch Recruitment Center/Ministry of Peace HQ/Psi Corps
Happiness Facilities - ISN Broadcast Center
Planetary Shields/Combat Modifiers - G.O.D Aegis Defence Grid (No scorched earth anyone )
Ship/Fleet Training Facilities - Earthforce Academies
Medical Facility - Edgar Industries

Minbari:
Research/Planet Conditions - Religious Caste Temples
Any Combat Modifier/Training Facilities - Warrior Caste Related
Resource Modifiers/Spaceyards - Worker Caste Related
Intelligence Centers - Anla-shok/Ranger Outpost
Happiness Bonus - Halls of the Grey Council

Centauri:
Resource Production - Slave Labour Camps (Preferably Narn )
Happiness Production - The Centaurum or Something equally as noble. Or maybe a Centuari Temple devoted to the "Goddess of Passion".
Combat/Training etc - Something made up that sounds very royal and has to do with the Emperor.
Intelligence - Centauri Diplomatic Hub (as we all know what centauri diplomacy is like )

Narn:
Happiness Facilities - Temple of G'Quan (or G'Kar )
Resource Related - Global Reconstruction Facilities.
Research - Narn Backwards Engineering Plant

I'm flat out of ideas now but i'll try and get some more ideas posted for you to think over.

Edit: As for creating a B5 Map i'm pretty sure there's maps out there where we could compile a bunch of B5 system names at least

[Timstone]

RD:
My goodness, I never thought there could come any intelligent Posts out of you my good friend.
Really clever comment.
I must say I agree on some of the things you two bring up, BUT have you ever taken a look at the sheer size of the mod?! It is HUGE. I've been working on very small mod myself, but only when you have ever attempted to make a mod yourself you notice what kind of effort goes into producing a large mod.
It's a shame Val went away (died?), because he had the whole plan in his head/on paper, and following up on his work is a difficult taks. Grumbler and I attempted to create 2.0, but the sheer size of this beast made us tired after a while. Grumbler did most of the work and I couldn't do my part anymore because of RL, so the will to go on quickly dissipated. Da Path has made the old B5 Mod up to date. He never intended to expand it, he just made it up to date.
I think we'll wait untill SE V comes along and maybe then we'll begin again with a B5 Mod. I surely would love to participate in it, but that still lies in the future.

[Raging Deadstar]

RD:
My goodness, I never thought there could come any intelligent Posts out of you my good friend.
Really clever comment.

I am laughing so hard at that comment You know me too well Timstone

I agree though, The MOD Is huge, obscenely so. It's shame really, But i certainly look forward to the inevtiable SEV B5 Mod, that will be interesting. I'll probably be willing to lend my ideas and support as well now i have watched All but season 5 of B5 (waiting for october ).

What disappointed me mainly wasn't the mod itself, It's impressive and unique. It was just the shame of the speed of the game. But other than that i thought what people had done was great, it was seriously an epic mod. (Components files around 3mbs in size LOL )

[Timstone]

Thanks for the appreciation.
And, yes, I do think there will be a SEV B5 Mod... eventually.
Untill that time, I'll be doing some work on the small mod I'm making. Don't expect too much of it, it's still in the thinking area for a great deal.
RD, you will have to wait a little bit longer. Coz, all the movies are going to be released on DVD as well. Damn, an even longer wait. Sometimes I hate it that I live in Europe.
Babylon5 DVD's
It's always good to talk to you RD, thumbs up for you!

[Fyron]

Da Path has made the old B5 Mod up to date. He never intended to expand it, he just made it up to date.

Too bad he never uploaded the Last Version...

[Raging Deadstar]

RD, you will have to wait a little bit longer. Coz, all the movies are going to be released on DVD as well. Damn, an even longer wait. Sometimes I hate it that I live in Europe.

It's always good to talk to you RD, thumbs up for you!

Which is why myself and my friend buy New releases from amazon and such. Even if it costs more to ship them it's a case of a little extra cash to a 3 or 4 extra month wait

And good to talk to you too Timstone, You haven't been in the cantina much so i never hear much from my favourite dutchman, i actually think i still have an e-mail from you about 1 and a half years ago entitled "balloon madman!"

But I put in my support for the B5 Mod when SEV comes out (Lol, Planning way ahead guys )

[Timstone]

Bumpski!
We're still here! LUrking and hiding in darkness untill SE V comes along...