Babylon 5 Mod

[Val]

Cpt. Kwok:

Looking foward to the finished product


Pathfinder:

I'm testing out some new AIs that seem to be doing a bit better, I'll most likely upload within the week


Everyone:

The new facilities are giving the AI some problems, so I am changing them a little to make the AI work (I would love it if you could tell build queues to work off a family number!!!!).

I've added ship class components for a variety of maint reductions : Civilian -90% maint, Corporate -70% & Military -50%. They are 0 space components that can be put on any ship or base. The down side is that Corporate and Civilian crews are poorly trained in comparison to Military crews and they suffer penalties to their attack and defense. I am testing these with the AI right now.

Other things I am working on: adding more ruins tech (including - Planetary Gun, a few unique weapons, Automation for ships and a few others), Shadow/Vorlon influenced ships, Gaim and Hyach unique techs, crew upgrades for ships/fighters/bases and Station Keeping drives for Bases. Also working on Stations that will be constructed like a Ring/Sphere world, so you can do a project like the Babylon Station and then have it have facilities on it.

Also wanted to thank Simon for the Repair Tug and SRB ideas (among many other ideas he sent).


Finally - does anyone know how to specify a specific star in the systemtypes.txt file? I want to make the Black Hole/Nebula star the blank black mask to make it 'invisible'. Thanks!!!

[Val]

I have a question for y'all (including the lurkers ):

Since the beginning weapon platforms were going to be removed from this mod - forcing players to rely on satellite and base defenses (and picket ships) to protect the planet. My original reason not to include them was that there was never any episode (or book) that had planetary based defenses that were able to fire into space/orbitting vessels. Usually the defense of a planet was done by ships, bases and satellites. The only notable exception was Epsilon 5 - which will be an available Ruins tech.

As it stands right now, most capital ships can't harm an established planet (as all facilities provide shields) unless they use Planetary or Biological weapons (there are exceptions, such as some Shadow weapons), so capital ships aren't as much a threat to planets (except newly formed colonies).

Recently someone mentioned that they would like to see WPs remain in the mod, and he made some good arguments (which I hope he will type in this forum).

I would like to know what y'all think

[wr8th]

IMHO, it would seem that a lessened reliance on WPs for planetary protection (especially for new colonies) would mean having a greater dependence on fleet patrols of the other empire rim systems... You can no longer have a rock (Singapore/Hong Kong type) sitting there like an unsinkable gun platform, but rather it forces you to make use of it as a forward staging base for incursions (or threat thereof) of an opposing empire. This will probably elicit a major re-thinking of strategy from the unmodded Version.

PS: looking forward to the release of this mod for Gold. Already downloaded the earlier Version for perusal and am impressed by the scope of this mod. Might even get a B5er friend of mine to buy the game....

[ 08 May 2002: Message edited by: wr8th ]

[Captain Kwok]

Val,

If you still want to remove the Weapons platforms then maybe you can increase the size of satellites...or even make the weapons platforms into "orbital platforms" (as in ST-DS9) that are capable of delivering a punch to an incoming fleet.

PS - Didn't Earth in one of the Bab 5 shows have extensive missile platforms orbiting the planet?

[ 08 May 2002: Message edited by: Captain Kwok ]

[Val]

Wr8th:

Glad you are enjoying and that your friend is considering SE to play the mod (not that there aren't enough reasons to own it anyway ).

As you said, I'd prefer a slightly different strategy than the 'Rock' for planetary defense, and force people to actually use picket lines and defensive ships a bit more.

Cpt. Kwok:

There were a few episodes that showed the defense grid around Earth, but everything was orbital, not planetary based. This can be done with sats and bases - though I do believe sat size needs to go up, as you suggested. A 'DS9' can be achieved by building a Base and arming it as you see fit.

[Captain Kwok]

What I meant by DS9 was the Orbital platforms the Cardassians and Dominion used in a few episodes...they were essential big, big, satellites with lots of power. So, I guess it makes sense just to add a few larger satellite sizes...maybe up to 200-250kT?

[Val]

My misunderstanding

Also, forgot to answer your earlier question: I use mostly DoGA 3 and Paint Shop Pro 7. What are you using?

[Suicide Junkie]

Another option is to give a wider variety of mounts for the satellite weapons.
There could be varying grades of "Siege Mount" weaponry, which cost more resources and space to get more range.

Another good defense should be mines. The very first episode had a colony protected by mines, so mines must be a decent defense.
I believe the only reason why they were breached so quickly was because the control station was destroyed before they could arm the mines.

[Captain Kwok]

I use Moray 3.3 to build the 3D model, POV-Ray to render, and I make the imagemaps in Adobe Photoshop 6 to give the ships detail.

[ 08 May 2002: Message edited by: Captain Kwok ]

[Val]

I couldn't get used to Morray. I need to see someone use it to get the hang of it quicker.

Mines are still important, and (iirc) there are a variety of warheads for them. New mounts need to be made for the entire mod - something else in the works .

So far the vote seems to be towards removing weapon platforms - or at least not against it.