Babylon 5 Mod

[Suicide Junkie]

Just wondering what you guys thought of my "defenses" post (previous page in thread).

If you want, I can make some example components that you could test in the SE4 simulator.
(Just generic weapons and some detail in defenses: engines, C&C, and the rest I won't touch yet. Just move the ships into range and start slugging it out )

[Val]

SJ, the help would be more than welcome! I liked the armor ideas, but haven't gotten that far yet. I am still working on the weapons and trying to balance them out, right now I have about 110 different weapons (some just variant classes of the same - like Light/Medium/Heavy Lasers) and I haven't even started on the ballistic weapons yet (7 Different Mounts and 20 Different Missile/Torpedo types).

[President_Elect_Shang]

Have you read the Sci-Fi Crossover thread? I would love to take a look at what you have (the components.txt) so far. It would give me a BIG jump in the 1st draft I hope to get working on as soon as I get the blessings <fingers crossed>!

[Val]

Yeah, I'm trying to keep up with it, and trying to avoid double work. We are hoping to balance the weapons and components as we work on them, this way it will slide into the rest (the cross-over mod) a little easier.

Most of the components are still in Excel spreadsheets, but I am testing some this weekend (afraid that is the only time I have) and will be glad to send them to you.

[Suicide Junkie]

quote:

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SJ, the help would be more than welcome! I liked the armor ideas, but haven't gotten that far yet. I am still working on the weapons and trying to balance them out, ...

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The weapon balance will depend a lot on the defense system.

For one, every combat-repairable internal component must have one point of OA ability, or nothing works.
So, we need to scale up the hitpoints/damage of everything in order to keep the repair rates down to a reasonable level.
How many small, 10kt components could be repaired in one combat turn? How long should it take to patch together one of the guns in a defense turret, if it is actually possible?

The repairable list should include:
- lifesupport
- crew quarters
- supply storage (supplies over max at any time are still lost)
- cargo (same condition as above)
- sensors
- unit launch?
- aux con? (repair = putting out fires & whatnot?)
- tiny weapons?

Add up the number of the above that will be included in a typical ship, and multiply by the number of turns you require to repair an item. That's how many hitpoints the item must have, minimum.
We should also add some dedicated "Damage Control Teams", (20-60 ability points?) which do nothing but provide extra repairs.

[thorfrog]

We need to organize this mod a bit. We could get more done in less time. Let divide parts of this mod to different people. First we need a team lead. Then break down the the different parts of the mod.

-interface graphics
-Components
-mapping
-race AI (broken up by the races)
Race AI should have one for un-modded and modded races.
-sound effects and presentation

One more thing, someone should host a web page to co-ordinate this effort.

What do you all think?

[President_Elect_Shang]

I am for putting in support on the tech, I have become very good at working around problems like the repair issue etc and keeping the size of the unit down to a min. I hate having to create a weapon that does 200 pts damage becouse one component on an escort needs 200 to be blown to bits (for example).
As for the spreadsheet, send it on over. I work on the weekends so I can take a first look at night and let you know what I think of it. I still say I can produce a 1st draft by wed or thur (I do so love deadlines) and if I get the blessing to work on the Sci-Fi mod techs than that takes care of the problem of "balance" between the diffrent Groups (Star Wars, etc..)
As for a side note I have completed adjusting everything in the data file of my personal mod (no one else may like it). Now I just need to work on the AI (till then I will play test against myself) and would not mind if someone else wanted to take a look at it. I warn you now, it is very specialized to the StarFire game universe. Brave poeple only!

[Val]

I'd be happy to act as a coordinator for this, if nobody objects. I have already put together most of the stuff from eveyone and have been keeping it up to date as much as possible.

I know Ramsie has finished an opening screen shot for the mod (which looks fantastic) and is going to work up BMPs for Lose/HumnDead/Victory that will be more B5 oriented.

Atomannj and Oleg have been working on Vorlons, Shadows, Centauri and LNAW.

I can't remember who originally posted the Minbari, but I know Atomannj had reworked them.

Rambie has the EA and Narn.

Zircher is working on the Hyach and Gaim(I think).

I've taken some of the currently available stuff and started breaking down the LNAW into the various races (Brakiri, Drazi and Vree for now) and started a Raider race as well.

SJ and myself are starting to combine ideas on the components side. This is also being matched up with the Sci-Fi Crossover mod to make the tech balanced with the Star Trek/Star Wars (and thereby other SE IV) races. President Elect Shang has also offered his help (which will be gladly taken up).

I've asked Jourin if we can use his cultures.txt file in the mod (pretty well balanced) and I have already modified several of the other data files and started a Mod info file with a history.

I'm also working on the Map - creating all those systems is a real pain.

Tesco Samon pointed me in the right direction for the sound files.

Imperator Fyron offered his assistance with the AI.

Finally, Pheonix-D and Zero Adunn have expressed some interest as well.

Did I leave anyone out?

[thorfrog]

Ship sizes I think the dreadnought should be alot larger in ship space. And I think planet destroying weapons should be massive in size too. Not something that can eventually placed on a cruiser. I keep thinking on how the Vorlons and the Shadows would send these massive planet cracking ships. These things could bloack out the sun. They should be aleast the size of a starbase. Maybe rework the baseship. Or give the baseship a seperate model. What do you all think?

[ZeroAdunn]

Shadows didn't have a reall planet killer, their weapon was essentially a whole horde of missiles that burrowed into a planets core and released tons of crap onto the planet. The planet was still there, just seriously crapped on.