Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Well, this is basically an updated version of Psientist's very excellent mod 'B5 Shadowfall'. Things new to this version include:

- Version 2.60 -
* new ship: Frazi fighter -- replaces gorith as mainstay narn fighter, although the gorith is still around...
* new ship: Thunderbolt Starfury for the Earth Alliance
* new ship: Shadow Scout -- mid-sized shadow vessel
* new ships: Brakiri Avioki Cruiser, Brokados Corvette, & Riva Fighter totally redesigned from the ground up
* changed game messages for Omega mission, only reports halfway point and so on, feels less like having a mainquest everytime now. May add Earth Civil war as a mainquest at some point.
* Tirk and the Vree are now found on the map instead of offmap.
* slightly different image for Omega to show rotating section (note: does not actually rotate... yet?)
* Omega weapon slot sizes changed so that only large guns can be place din front
* Whitestar forward weapon slot changed so that only one very large gun can be equipped
* Centauri Primus now launches sentri fighters, why should the Narn have all the fun?
* the price of Dust has gone up
* The Well of Forever isn't just a myth anymore...
* scanners have been acting funny out near the rim, as well as reports of... "things" out there.
* an Apocalypse box is waiting to be found.
* quest naming structure changed to reflect FLAG value ('ally_', 'alws_', 'evnt_', 'game_', 'main_', & 'nevr_') just easier to organize. should not affect gameplay at all, checked & double-checked folder vs. game.ini file.
* Data crystal with jump gate no longer findable, but you may get it if you wish upon the cheating star

- Bug Fixes
* Vorlon beacon event *should* work now
* beacon allies (vree, tirk, rangers, vorlons) *should* show up on large maps

- Known Bugs
* Non-occurring event somewhere out there, possibly even one that crashes the game to windows
* there is an earth alliance ally buried in here, but it doesn't work for some reason so it isn't implemented yet in game.

- Version 2.55 -
* weakened shielding on most fighters, may compensate later by adding in more fighters
* Various changes to weapons to make them more in line with how they are portrayed in the series, includes: Omega x-ray guns, Drakh weapons, and the Victory main gun
* new graphics for weapons as well as a new weapon or two
* new items!
* new lifeforms!
* new GUI "beep" sounds!
* added a B5 icon pack from somewhere (forgot where I found it)
* alphabetized game.ini file, shouldn't effect gameplay, but will help keep things organized for me.

- Version 2.50 -
* New mainquest: the Thirdspace aliens invade! Can you stop them before its too late? (not a kawangi clone, I promise)
* New mainquest: the Shadow war comes to a head as the Shadows amass a fleet to break the back of the fledgleing Alliance!
* New race & ship: Thirdspace aliens w/ a Thirdspace Cruiser
* New sprite for Raider Zephyr
* Vorlon planet killer mainquest SHOULD work now.
* New targeting system: the Holographic chamber (note that I thought it was a stupid idea)
* Fixed the Vree "multiplying beacon" bug

- Version 2.45 -
* new vorlon ship: Vorlon Fighter
* new race & ship: Vree with Xill warship
* summon more allies into combat with Beacons. only one I'll give away is Drazi mercenary, Tirk! Can you find the rest?
* adjustments to the power levels of the shadows and the vorlons, slightly more manageable
* it pays in new ways to have some passengers aboard...
* new graphics for various races
* and yet Another attempt at jumpgates, this one is a bit of a cop-out on my part, but should appeal to the non-violent score junkies
* changed way the Primus is picked up, should be a tad more interesting.
* changes to the Jump Drive particle effects, should be more "realistic", also made Jump point generator drive as a findable item now, may have to add more items to make it less common
* numerous other changes/fixes which I completely forgot to write down

- Version 2.40 -
* new drazi ship: Sky Serpent
* merged Shadows with Drakh to remove "Shadow vs Drakh" battles, can't evil just get along?
* Victory Class: main gun is now only one use (per combat); possible problems if used with other ships in flotilla (?) (simulator still uses old style for obvious reasons)
* Victory Class: size changed after looking over the actual sizes of ships in the series, an Omega is actually smaller than the Victory
* added a "Minbari ECM unit" system item to Minbari craft, practically untargetable?
* added "Justin" to Lorien quest, an alternate event for evil players who visit Z'ha'dum. May follow up with additional quest on Epsilon.
* added Garibaldi drop-off at B5 for the uncurious.
* another change to 'virus' quest following revelation that "haveitem" command only applies to cargo hold.
* further changes to narn/centauri behavior, hopefully they will behave as expected
* changed weapon for minbari fighters, should look and feel more like the tv series (more of a gatling gun effect?)
* Raider Battle Wagon: changed size, as well as layout of systems, should work better now.
* changed graphic for raiders, that pirate face was making me sick
* increased size of Minbari Sharlin b/c it is also supposed to be bigger than Omega, also gave it improved combat computer b/c they're supposed to be bad-***
* changed sizes/speed/armor/turn of various craft after comparing and contrasting from data on B5-tech manual

So why the name change? A couple of reasons. First, because Shadowfall was Psientists mod and should he decide to come back and start updating again I would probably have to rename this thing anyways. Also, I wanted to give this mod a new direction of sorts. In the TV series the Shadow war played a prominent role, but it wasn't everything. The series was centered on the B5 station but a great deal more happened than just fighting the Shadows. In addition, should I decide to just drop this whole mod altogether I'd like to hope that somebody else would pick up the torch and run with it, so I see it as a continuing project of sorts, passed down from one fan to the next.

While I've tried to test the new additions out as much as possible, I can't possibly run through every scenario, so even though this is starting from v2.3, it may not be so stable. If you encounter any problems, e-mail me at PaddirN@hotmail.com and I'll try and figure out where I f'ed up. If you have any suggestions, comments, improvements of your own, don't hesitate to send them all to me. I can't promise I'll update on a regular basis, as 2 jobs, a girlfriend, family, friends, and a 'zine all are competing for my time. But for the moment I've still got a lot of ideas for additions to this mod.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Plans for the next version include:

* Streamlining certain passenger quests so they work more efficiently
* more quests
* update to the Centauri Primus battlecruiser, that all white skin just doesn't match with the centauri's purple theme.
* possibly add more EA or vorlon ships, whichever one ends up being easier.
* the vorlons strike back!
* a new "weapon" against the shadows...
* may add the url carrier to the pak'ma'ra arsenal, but not sure if it'll make the pak'ma'ra more powerful than they really should be... I mean they're Just in the League of Non-Aligned Worlds

All this and maybe more, depending on how much time, effort, and imagination I put into it.

Graeme out.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Can't wait to give it a shot. I haven't had time to do anything or play in sometime. I'll let you know when I have time to play and any bugs I come across.
Damn, didn't even realize there was an update to WW!

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Great! Just downloading it! I'll try it out tonight and let you know about any bugs I come across!

Looking also forward to your other ideas!

As for the Pak'ma'ra (and the other races that use the original WW ship graphics) I think they should be getting their proper ships, although I know that this requires even more time, which none of us have.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Excellent job! Overall you did some very good improvements, creative and very well implemented. Played about 20 games with all settings medium and really enjoyed it so far. Here's my feedback:

- I like the Starfuries a lot, they even move realistically, i.e. stop abruptly to turn and than shoot off to a different direction. Maybe the non-player Omegas should have Starfury fighter bays onboard that launch suqads as the new Urlu Carrier does (I noticed that the ones in the simulator have fighter bays).
- Raiders are also cool, but I don't think they need different kind of ships, just use the ones that are from the movies (I personally feel that original WW stuff should be minimized as much as possible).
- Garibaldi! Nice one. Maybe you could make him reward you if you bring him back to B5 before you retire (the remove passenger command should work in 1.2)
- Morden: great improvement over the old version. I usually go for the Gravitic Discharge Cannon (if I chose to become evil). I think Morden should appear early in the game (if the quest triggers) because then the player is forced to chose sides early in the game and other missions that depend on it (Keeper) are more likely to happen. It would also make battles against the Minbari more frequent.
-Jumpgates. Very creative implementation, however a bit awkward to have the jumpgate always with you as an "ally ship". Makes it impossible to retreat from combat and just "feels" strange. Also, looks a bit funny to see all the ships from top down perspective while the gate is actually a side view. You can also do funny things with it, such as placing a cloaker on it to hide it during battles.
-Music in combat! That's a brilliant addition, although the pace is a bit slow some times to be perfectly suited for battle. Would be better fitting as an intro music. Also: can you make it louder a bit? Could you also add music while travelling on the starmap - some kind of ambient B5 theme. That would be really cool.
- Liked the "Alone in the Night" event a lot, as it adds more to the theme! But what's the difference between this one and "The Coming of Shadows"?
- The battles are more interesting now. Had a four way battle with 3 Drakh Raiders, a Shadow Crab, 4 Shadow Fighters, 2 Omega Class Cruisers and 6 Starfuries, and me, i.e. the Victory Class and the Nial Fighter. Strangely, the Shadows attacked the Drakh first (BUG??) and then obliterated the two Omegas. At that time I decided to run quickly...
-the EA fleets are a nice addition to the game. On the first encounter, however, they told me that they would be really happy to see some humans this far out in deep space, while their fleet circled around Earth? I thought on Earth they would see humans regularly...They also had a free Drakh Cannon in their arsenal. Very strange! The planet graphics did not look like Earth anyway...
-I only got a peek glance at the quest where President Clarke takes over EA, because it coincided with the Drakh mission that ended the game too early. In general, I never ever managed to stop the Drakh (I had them about ten times now in all my B5 games) as they are far too powerful to be stopped that early in the game.

Bugs (some are from previous versions, but maybe you can fix them):
-Pak'Ma'Ra ally ship does not befriend me with the Pak'M'Ra (how do I befriend the League of Non-aligned Worlds anyway???)
-I destroyed a Centauri fleet, but that did not befriend the Narn.
-the Victory Class main weapon has a graphical glitch which it hadn't before on my computer. It fires from somewhere behind the ship.
-Neutrino Array does only reveal cloaked ships when NOT equipped but only in cargo hold.
-When I chose the dark side (Morden) I can still free the First One Prisoner on Zhahadum, although this should not be possible.
-I can remove the keeper from my cargo hold and drop it off on a planet (it also has a trade value?!?!?). Furthermore, the Shadow and the Drakh become my enemies again when the Drakh Keeper is on my ship. this should not be the case. Maybe you can have a look into that.
-the Drazi Merc still does not function properly

Gosh, that's a long post. Don't get me wrong by the criticism, it's just meant as creative feedback. You did an excellent job on this one and I really want to encourage you to keep up this fantastic work!

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Whew, I'll try and do a point-by-point reply:

* Yea, in the race profile for the EA there actually are some fleets that have the new fighter bay omega, but in game I noticed they weren't appearing as much, I'll do some fidgeting and try and get them to show up

* I wanted to give the raiders some kind of variety, but thinking back all they really had was like, what 2 ship types?

* There actually is a little something that happens with garibaldi in some other events, but I think the chances of triggering them might be too low. I'm working on making it happen more often.

* Hadn't thought about moving morden closer, sounds good.

* With the jumpgates, allying was about the only thing I could think of to be able to implement them. It wasn't even supposed to have that system slot, but for some reason the game kept on freezing whenever I went into battle with the jumpgate, so I added a slot and shielding.

* I've noticed the sound issue, it seems like every sound I download is way way too quiet. I even wanted to change the intro music to the opening music from the series, but I could barely even make out the monologue. Not sure which program to use to bump up the volume. I think I might have cooledit around somewhere. Anyone know what to use?

* "Alone in the night" and "Coming of shadows" were just different naming schemes I came up for the "failure" events for something else that's supposed to happen there. It just depends on who you might be carrying with you at the time.

* As far as I know there's no way to make other races ally with each other. I'll look into it, but I've seen that happen before too. Off the top of my head the only thing I can think of that would work would be to make them all part of the same race, but with separate fleets. Wouldn't know what to introduce them with though.

* With the Clark storyline I pretty much cheated and made that part of the military mission b/c it seemed the most appropriate.

Bugs:
* I hadn't intended for the League allies to befriend you with their races, but I guess that was how it happened in the main WW game, may change it to work that way. What I planned to do later on was add items for every race that would befriend them. Maybe a colored sash for the Drazi and some dead rotting animal carcass for the pak'ma'ra. No idea what to do for brakiri and gaim.

* The whole narn/centauri conflict thing needs to be adjusted, but the way I intend it to work is only if you pick up allies from one group, that will turn the other group against you. The idea being that if you show up in Narn space with a centauri battle cruiser, they won't take very kindly to you bringing their hated enemy to their territory and see it as an act of war.

* I haven't even touched anything with the victory class, mostly b/c I never like playing it anyways. But I'm guessing it may have something to do with the new 1.2 update. I'll check it out though.

* I was wondering about that neutrino array. I went ahead and just added another object into the game that has hypervision, it should be in with the next update I do. As for the neutrino array, I'll either turn that into something else or just change its description.

* I noticed being able to drop the keeper off awhile ago. The only thing I can think of is to just remove it as a passenger and just keep its effect. I mean, why would you even have a drakh keeper as a passenger anyways? But as far as the FLAGs are concerned it looks alright, it shouldn't even have a trade value though. Unfortunately it doesn't look like theres anyway to make passengers into permanent non-removable guests. The only other thing would be to make it a ship component you can't remove but that doesn't even make sense.

* I.Have.No.Idea.About.The.Drazi.Merc. Sorry, I'm not upset with you its the drazi merc, it works for me sometimes, but most of the time it doesn't and I just don't know why. I've compared the code of him with the minbari ally and they're virtually identical, but one works and the other doesn't. And yet I've had no problems with the pak'ma'ra or minbari ally.

Thanks for the feedback, much appreciated, I'll add these to my to-do list.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

One note about sounds: sound effects should always be in mono, and music should always be in stereo. Mono music seems to play at approximately half the volume for some reason, while stereo sound effects will cause other problems.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Annoying: I had a nice fleet: EA destroyer, Narn cruiser, Drazi fighter and the jumpgate. I entered a black hole and boom: back to windows instantly...
Has anyone experienced this as well?

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Wow - just tried this mod out. What a great job done! I can see myself playing the mod for quite a while to come. Keep up the (very good) work!

-cc

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Probably a bug in some of the encounters that are triggered in black holes. Must be one of the first Firstborn events. Had you met Morden in before? Maybe there's a conflict when the game has to create the "Timeless Bauble" effect twice per game (as there is one Firstborn who also grants a wish). Just an idea. PaddirN?

Noticed that on the large map most of the quests still do not work, either, as it was the case before in 2.2 Shadowfall. Fingers, do you know what might be the reason for this?

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Not sure about the black hole thing, tried reproducing it myself, haven't seen it crop up yet. But if it does have to do with the double bauble effect, that shouldn't be a problem with next release.

Which quests still aren't working? I've been doing some cleaning up and may have fixed it by now.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

I can confirm some glitches that Jamiri found: Excalibur firing the main gun like behind the ship, and I had the Neutrino Array which supposed to reveal cloacked ships (eg.: Shadow Mothership) but I could not see it coming (Rest In Peaces...)

And I wonder: do you think if it would be a good /possible idea to have Bester/Lyta or any telepath as a solution to defeat/stop the Shadow Mothership (if it is already there- delete this part) to have a little chance for surviving the encounter?

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Yea, saw the Victory class glitch and have taken care of that. Oddly enough, I didn't change anything about that and just carried it right over from Shadowfall. Turns out the OFFS variable for that beam effect was set to -200, which apparently is whyt its behind the ship, I just don't know why it didn't do that before. I'm still thinking it has to do with 1.2 update(?)

With the neutrino array sensor, I think that the only way for an item to have hypervision is if it is an item in your cargo hold, otherwise if a ship's systems or even passengers have it it won't have any effect. So I've just turned the neutrino array into a normal sensor and added something else that might help level the playing field a little.

I don't know that there's really anything that would specifically help against the Battle crabs (apart from the thing I talked about last paragraph). There *might* be a way to send them away to another star system, but I don't think there's a way to just outright destroy them or weaken them with an item... Perhaps the First Ones can be of assistance. I'm wanting to do something with Lorien to send them away, but the problem with that is you have to actually go to Z'ha'dum first. Meh, I'll figure something out.

2.35 update should be available here in a little bit, just doing some minor tweaking with quests and then I'll upload it.

btw I have no idea what the procedure is for version numbers so if they don't make sense that's why. I mean, how do you tell the difference between 2.35 or 2.4 or 2.5?

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Couple issues other than the ones mentioned...

1. When Delenn enters her special chrysalis event, the text box w/her pic that comes up is screwed up. The bottom half is blurred or something to that affect.

2. I've had problems getting the Narn to join with the Narn book in my hold. They did finally join me once when entering a star system while they were battling another race. Game before that, I met them in 3 seperate star systems and each time they would not join me. They were not in battle either time. Dunno if that matters.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

1) With the Delenn thing I believe the problem was that I didn't have that pic at the correct size (128x128), it should be corrected with the next update.

2) The events for both the narn and the centauri are both in need of a major overhaul and I think thats next on my to-do list b/c its been bugging me for awhile now too. With the narn book not working it may be a problem with some of the code i added. To keep from having too many allies at once I made certain allies mutually exclusive from others, don't know if thats the case here, but it sounds like it.

While I'm at it, things to look forward to next update:

* Big change to the Victory class and I think you know what I'm talking about (along with something you might not).

* Mission-specific quests. Not a big deal for now, but I may expand on it later on.

* Changes to some alien fleet set-ups that were just plain weird/stupid

* Merged the shadows and the drakh together into one uber race to keep them from battling it out (tsk tsk senseless violence), may have to bump up the number of fleets now.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

An idea- or question- hit me: would it be possible to use more beacons? Or use the existing one to summon an ally of choice? It would be cool if in case you have allies like the centaury or narn etc. they could be summoned to fight eg. the Shadow Battlecrab. This would be more like in the series and it would be more fun to play. Only small ships could be added to the fleet. Of course it would cut the possibility to upgrade those capital ships, but with race specific permanent weaponry could spice up the B5 feeling.
Opinions?

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

It's an interesting idea and it may actually help with another problem I've encountered. Maybe do the beacons as trade-offs: Each race would have its own item that would befriend them and get their beacons.

The only thing is that the command to get those beaconed allies to come is a SUMN command which I think just summons the nearest <race> fleet to your position. In the regular game this is just fine with the klakar because they only have just one fleet. So if I wanted specific allies I think I'd need to make new races for each one. Not too hard, but I'll think about it some more and play around with it.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

I like the idea as well. And I don't have a problem with summoning the closest of the fleets (as this is the most logical anyway, although MIND that no races besides the Centauri, Minbari, Vorlon and Shadows/Drakh have the Jump Drives, so actually no other race could jump in instantly).

The Shadows will take out even larger fleets easily so you shouldn't worry to much about having to make extra fleets for each race that are sort of scaled down. But make the beacon single use only, cause otherwise you could summon in a fleet, back out if it is destroyed, go back in and summon another fleet again and so on.

B.t.w. when do we see the next update??

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Actually I just uploaded the new update, you can find it at the top of the thread.

Two somewhat big changes:

1) Victory main gun is now a one shot (per combat) deal, with a "gong" type activation. Only fires straight in front of the ship, so make sure you're locked on to target. Also, b/c of this I had to remove any allies to the Victory mission (other missions unaffected), otherwise other ships in the flotilla would fire the victory gun. However, the ally beacon idea may very well solve this problem, so I'll mess around with it and see what I can do with it. Though, now that I think about it, no allies for the Victory (science) mission might make more sense as not having allies would give you less incentive to attack, although I might have to create an 'aethric mirror' type item(?) for non-violent scorers. Maybe I could finally do something with jumpgates!

2) Ship sizes/armor/speeds/turns have been altered after I reviewed info on the B5-tech manual. Not sure how that page rates as far accuracy, but I wanted to make everything consistent (ie the drakh cruiser should be the biggest ship at 3300m, while the Victory is 2990m, and the Omega is 1700m; whereas previously the drakh cruiser and the Victory were both smaller than the Omega). This may or may not completely F up gameplay, let me know and I'll fudge some more numbers.

Enjoy!

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Love the idea of having Victory only firing once per combat. Much more aligned to the weapon's characteristics in the series. Just d/l now. Looking forward to trying this latest version out.

Want to compliment you on this mod. Hands down, this is the very best mod out there. I'm not even slightly inclined to switch back to the vanilla after playing this one for a few weeks...

-cc

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

OK, new version 2.45 has now been uploaded, you can get it at the top of the thread. Highlights include:

* As per request: the addition of beacons to your list of allies in the war against the Shadows. The drazi ally event has been deleted and in its place is: Tirk, a drazi mercenary you can summon with a hyperspace beacon. There's also a few more beacons out there to find, can you catch them all?

* New race & ship: Vree with a Xill saucer. Vree Conglomerate grandly open now for good business trade!

* New ship: Vorlon fighter

* adjustments to power levels of shadows & vorlons, should make battles slightly more manageable

* Jump point generator is now findable and the hyperin/hyperout effects/sounds have been changed to make it more "realistic"

* Yet another attempt at jumpgates

Enjoy.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Uh oh.. Bug. I met the Vree and was offered a beacon (think it was the Vree).

Anyways, I had no room for extra cargo, so I wanted to switch out an item for the beacon.

I clicked on the item to switch and then moved it to the planet.

Then a whole mess (like 5) beacons appeared on the planet. Then another 4.

I finally got rid of the item in exchange for the beacon and found 3 beacons in my hold.

This is over the maximum I should have been able to carry.

I then took this over to a shadow-occupied planet, entered combat, and crashed to desktop...

Pity, I was looking forward to the fight...

-cc

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

huh... That's really weird, I'll try and mess around and see if I can recreate that one.

(10 minutes later)...

ok, figured it out. Apparently that was supposed to be a popup, but it wasn't functioning that way, it was happening even without a full cargo hold. Fixed the problem, I'll update here in a sec along with a few new goodies, sorry about that. My debugging process isn't incredibly rigorous.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Aight, new update is posted at the top. Just wanted to fix that bug really quick, but I figured I may as well just post everything I've worked on since the last update. Newer things include:

* 2 New Mainquests (neither of which are kawangi clones, I promise):
- Thirdspace aliens invade!
- The Shadows launch an all-out attack!
* New sprite for the Raider Zephyr, now you won't have to look at that mutilated garthan fighter anymore!
* Fix: Vorlon Planet Killer mainquest SHOULD (fingers crossed) work right now.
* Fix: Vree "multiplying beacon" bug buggered

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Good game play. You have done a GREAT JOB!!

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Tanks, although I still think like 90% of the work was really done by Psientist, I'm just extending the work. This is actually my first attempt at modding anything, but Weird Worlds is fairly easy to pick up. It's prolly just as much fun for me tinkering around with the game as it is playing it.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Wow! This mod's really evolving! Every new release is better, filled with more surprises and has more depth than a previous release. Keep it coming, PaddirN!

Just want to give you my detailed feedback once again (you don't have to answer this long post).


Impressions:
- the game has so many options and decision points now that every time I play it it's really different depending on the choices I make. This mod is truely a must have for B5 fans!
- Very cool is the new pics and sounds you added. I am really happy to see that the old hyperdrive "Christmas bells" sound was removed and replaced.
- You did it! The Drazi Merc finally co-operates with the game ;-)! I also like the way you made it work.
- The cloaking sound of the Shadows is even better!!! However, why does de-cloaking still play the old sound. It'd be even more frightening if a Shadow crab uncloaked right in front of you with this eerie sound.
- The Raiders are much better now, especially their weapons are cool visually. The Battle Wagon is also a nice addition.
- You can return Garibaldi and Bester early - but does it have some benefit for the player or you just lose the ability to catch certain thiefs? Maybe you should get some reward for bringing them back early.
- There is less WW stuff, and more B5 items! Not that I dislike the WW gizmos, but they don't really fit into the setting. I have said that earlier, but especially the Urlu and the Muktian ships seem a bit awkward.
- The Nials have become much more of a threat, although they tend to stop once close to an enemy.
- Wow, the Vorlons as a Kawangi replacement. Can I still get them as an ally against the Shadows?
- Very cool that you placed Morden closer to Epsilon Eridani. Makes you take a tough decision in the beginning. However if you go evil, now you can just wish for a Shadow Cleaver Beam and you're done. Maybe Shadow tech should not be given away so easily - same for Vorlon tech, which Morden shouldn't have for sale anyway.
- The Hyperion class is really great. How many fighters does it launch simultaneously? Unlimited?
- I also like the idea with the Data crystals. Had a good laugh until I got the one mentioning Clarke's scheming - that was the moment when I thought: Another important B5 story element in the mod! Things are getting better and better! Go, PaddirN! Go!
- Nice idea having the Centauri Battlecruiser drift in space - now the player can decide whether to board it (and making the Narn your enemies thå next time you meet them) or to leave it behind to keep the chances of befriending the Narn
- The jumpgates: well, though I see they really should be in the game and the female voice over, as well as the beacon approach is really great, I doubt that using the Aethric Mirror for this purpose is a good idea. The problem is that you displace enemy fleets with it, which is not realistic and makes the game far too simple. Unfortunately, I do not have any better idea on how to implement them in the game.


Ideas:
- the Triluminary should be removed once you have Delenn on your ship, and Delenn should always be much more valuable than the Triluminary (makes it a minor mission to have to pick up Delenn from her homeworld to get those additional points). Does Delenn acutally have a higher purpose in the game?
- The Omega Class X-Ray main cannons should have their own proper sound from the series. The Tachyon Ray sound is not suitable for their mighty beams.
- Have some defense against the virus - maybe something like the Plasmaworm from WW, of which the description fits nicely!
- My personal opinion is that it should NOT be possible to find a Jump Point Generator on the map. It makes it a much more interesting and tough choice whether to ally with the Centauri (forfeiting the chance for such a device ) or whether to attack them to acquire a Jump Point Generator in battle against them. In addition, the device is very powerwul, so it should be quite hard to get one.


BUGS:
- One of the encounters in a black hole removed a beacon that I did not have
- when I summon Tirk the first time while not in combat, the radar screen pops up if I click on view in the planet display
- Great solution for the Victory Class main gun. However, I got the Narn ally by giving the Book of Narn to them. So during combat the Narn cruiser fired the Victory main gun instead.
- when I chose to be evil (give in to Morden's offer) the Shadows still attack me? Why? Also, why do the Minbari turn against me then, but the other races such as the Narn or EA don't?
- I still got the event where I meet the EA fleet in deep space hailing me and exchanging information, although B5 had turned independent due to Clarke's takeover of EA. Shouldn't this cancel this event to happen?
- Can Justin's mission to lure Sheridan to Zha'hadum acutally be completed? After getting this mission, I flew back to B5 to get to sheridan but nothing happened. Maybe it's a bug so let me recreate what I did: I got the mission from Justin on Zha'hadum (no battle took place), then I moved to a couple of black holes, where I had taken away my non-existing beacon (as described earlier), I moved on to B5 (nothing happened) returned to Zha'hadum, where I then also discovered the First One??? Why did I get to events on the same planet, and why can I free the First One from the Zha'hadum prison when I'm allied to the Shadows in the first place??
- B4 always attacks me and never just drifts defenselessly in space. Is that intentional? Furthermore, it does not have a long range attack, which makes it such an easy target even with the weakest weapons on your ship. How about some figther cover Or just remove the weapons entirely.
- The Drakh Keeper event did not place any Keeper icon in my hold. Is that because you removed it? Is there still any effect of this event?
- When I summon the Drazi Merc outside battle for the first time, the radar pops up and a first contact text box is displayed, which feels strange as it is not really first contact. Should work somehow similar to the Klakar encounter and summoning.

PaddirN, I really appreciate the great job you're doing here! I know how hard it is to come up with a mod of such scope (did my own mod back then for Strange Adventures in Infinite Space). I just wanted to let you know that there are players who enjoy playing what you produced! Keep up the great work!

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Tanks for the feedback, I'm glad people like the mod, though I'm starting to worry about the bugs cropping up.

Impressions:
- One of my overall design ideas was to put in choices and conflict, because that was an overarching theme in the series, the choices the characters had to make: between the shadows & the vorlons, Londo and his rise&fall, Babylon 5 and Earth, Garibaldi's fall from grace. Everything they did had consequences later on down the line. I think Londo's story influences most design ideas.
- With the cloaking sound with the shadows I didn't want that screaming sound to be popping up every few seconds as it would get really old after a minute or so, hell if you just wait at the intro screen for the intro battle you'll hear it more than enough times.
- With garibaldi being returned early you actually get less points, though I'm considering adding on a reward later on. I may have bester interact with the Ship of Tears event.
- The vorlons may lend aid when the time is right.
- Yea I want the data crytals to add a certain surprise to the game, they're like little gift boxes.

Ideas:
- Delenn actually makes use of the triluminary later on, and if you follow it through you may even find a new friend in an unexpected place...
- I never thought of having a defense for the virus, but sounds good.
- With the jump point generator I was thinking of vanilla WW and I realized that you can just find it lying around. Plus I figured with all the high-powered baddies flyin around out there (shadows, vorlons, 3rdspace) players needed something to give them an edge. However there doesn't seem to be enough items in the mod and the JPG seems to pop up way too often, I'll fiddle around with an idea.

Bugs:
- Just put most of these on my toodoo list, tanks
- I never really wanted the shadows to actually ally with you, even if you accept their gift. They're not trying to be your friend, they're trying to create conflict by giving you something powerful. As for the other races, some I prolly accidentally left off, while the EA was intentional. If you think about it, Earth was actually aligned with the Shadows during the series, plus because of the media blackout they didn't even know anything that was going on outside their own world.
- The Justin/Sheridan thing I never finished, though I might at a later point. The trouble will be with 1) how to account for Sheridan being gone and the alarm popups 2) Victory mission where sheridan isn't young anymore. I knew it was gonna be big headache when I put it in, but I think I have an idea for it now that might work
- The drakh keeper has been removed as a passenger because it just didn't make sense to me that a little invisible thing riding around on your shoulder should take up valuable passenger space. So i figured you'd still be able to feel the effect of the keeper, without actually seeing him.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

I am so happy to see the mod evoling like this! I wish a had more time to contribute some minor things to Psientist's mod (some objects-pictures) but for now I can only be "smart" and suggest things:
- In the B5 shows the destroyer class ships( eg Victory, Omega) they could fire their main gun only in one direction- no tracking. But they also had strong defense grid (eg plasma cannon) AND fighter bay!
What you say guys?

And I almost forgot: Happy New Year and modding to all of you!

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

- I've thought about adding a small fighter bay to the victory and there's already a version of the omega with the fighter bay in the earth alliance fleet, but i'm kind of worried about play balance with adding it to player ships. The designers of the original didn't even add a fighter bay to any of the player ships or even the allied ships. I think it has to do with how unbalanced it would make battles, as you could always just use your fighters to bait the enemy and then go in for the kill with your main ship. Having only a single fighter ally makes this a bit harder as he can only die once.

- as for the main gun tracking, that problem should be fixed with the victory (except in the simulator), although with the Omega I'm actually going over its forward weapons now readjusting trying to make those more "realistic".

- part of me even wants to add the defense grid too. I've gone over specs on B5Tech.com and both destroyers have pretty strong defense grids, but again, I think play balance would be disrupted. Ships wouldn't even have to worry about fighters because they'd be blowing them out of the sky left and right and the only way to counter that would be to beef up the fighter count in the fleets. Although with some of the changes I've been making to the fighters I may have to do that anyways.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

EXCELLENT WORK!!!! Like owning a new game (space sim). Fantastic. It's great to see new mods. Well appreciated.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

This sounds like a great Mod - but just one question.
Does it use any of the new content / features from WW 1.2 ?
I use a Mac, and the latest update isn't (yet) available.
I can't tell just by trying it, as another mod used some parts from the update, and seemed to run fine until it crashed on me at an apparently random time.
Anyway - look forward to trying this mod - when I can.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Actually yeah, it should carry over everything from v1.2. I haven't noticed anything thats caused any problems with carrying it over to 1.2, although there was an unknown crash I was getting at one point which I haven't seen for some time now. Hopefully its gone away now.

Oh, and just got a message back from psientist:

"
Re: B5: Shadowfall open source?
From: Psientist

I am indeed no longer updating this mod. If you want to release your own variants, go right ahead. Just make sure you identify your version differently, and credit your changes and my original sources appropriately.

If you intend to do lots of work on it, you might want to give it a new name and numbering system, but build upon the existing version history so there's no confusion.

Good luck!
"

I guess the torch has been officially passed now.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Best mod ever! Thank you.

I found a small bug in v.2.50. After winning the Centauri fleet at their home wold, I got another jump point generator at every subsequent visit.

Before the first visit to Centauri homeworld I had previously found a jump generator as a random item on a planet, if that makes any difference.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Sounds like everybody likes PaddirN's mod - wish I could play it (it crashes on my mac, doh). keep up the good work...

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

I'm in the same boat ... Mac. Guess I'll have to wait for a bit. Still enjoying Psientist's mod.

Hal

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Why exactly doesn't the mod work on macs? Is it just because of the 1.2 changes? Do any mods work then, or do mac-users have to just play vanilla?

I should think that 1.2 mods would still work on macs if you just took out a few files from the gamedata directory. The only thing I did to bring this mod to 1.2 was to add a few .ini files, I believe its just strings.ini and numbers.ini, though I think there may be one or two more (just compare the gamedata folders with an older mod). It should work fine if you just pull those files out I would think...

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Aight, new 2.55 update has been posted. This update is more for maintenance and upkeep than anything else. I've been going back through the series (and I'm actually watching Crusade now all the way through for the first time evar) and trying to bring the weapons effects more in line with the series. You'll notice a big difference with the Omega guns (positions and color) and the Drakh weapons. Apparently the Drakh are pansies and actually have a light blue and yellow weapon effect theme going on.

New items and lifeforms have been added in as well to spice things up, some may help your cause, others may get you into trouble... Also, the Jump Point Generator is no longer findable, may add another quest at some point to pick it up for a price.

I've also apparently reached the upper limits of the max # of quests allowed in a mod. I'm confidant I should be able to condense some quests together, but it won't be much, so don't expect many more new quests unless I start deleting old ones.

BUGS: there is still a non-occurring event which I haven't been able to identify yet. You'll notice it when you reach a planet and nothing happens (no item, no fleets, no events). I suspect its the Vorlon ally event (who? what? where?). Can anybody else confirm this? If you've seen this quest pop up let me know, otherwise I'm clueless.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

I never had any crash issues when I put the 1.2 content into my mac, it just acted funny sometimes. (especially with the multimissile launcher) I'm guessing that the new mod overflows one of the old hardcoded system limits that was increased after 1.2. But that's just a guess.

-Jeremy

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Last Episode of Dallas, rofl!

Just a quick note: some of the new click sounds you added are a bit, well, annoying. Especially the one that confirms your actions or is used when you click on the buttons that change playing speed during combat (sounds a bit like breaking glass). In my eyes (or ears ;-) ) the click sounds shouldn't be too prominent.

The reduced firing arcs of the Omega are good, it's already the most powerful of the three ships anyway.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Looks like the 1.2 for Mac has been pulled. 1.21 is only for Windows. There is a "coming soon" message for Mac users.

I haven't tried today's version. I'll give it a try on 1.11 and let you know what happens.

Thanks, Hal

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

OK, must be a 1.2 thing. After selecting the mod and clicking "Start", the screen goes black for a bit then the screen goes back to the normal desktop with an abend message. A dump file is available.

Thanks, Hal

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Yea, I remember when I put the sounds in I thought they were quite annoying and I meant to rearrange them or at least bring the volume down on some, but I never got around to it and eventually I think I just got used to them and stopped noticing them. Believe it or not there were some other sounds that were far, far more annoying than the one you're talking about.

Apparently I was wrong about the max limit on the quests. According to fingers its actually 128 now. So full steam ahead now and I'll have to try and figure out what exactly was giving me problems before...

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Not sure if this will be illuminating for you or not but I tried to add a quest or two from added content mod (wanted more potential allies) and couldn't load the games afterwards. Game would get as far as launch screen, new ships would load into simulator background, then game would crash to desktop as soon as you tried to begin a mission. I'm pretty sure all of the quests I added were to do with allied ships. Could have been because the result would create the opportunity to have a fleet that would exceed game limits(whatever those might be).

Good luck tracking that down. Loving the mod so far. Always amazed at the sheer stamina you modders have. The amount of work you must be putting into this is astonishing - high fives all around! Also... thanks.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Your problem might be that you didn't bring in all the required files for those allies to work: hulls, systems, weapons, graphics, even races. You also need to account for all that stuff in the game.ini file as well. Other than that not sure what it could be.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

I have had the 3rd space alien quest (to go to a specific black hole) and when I went there the message: "standing triumphant" or something message popped up and that was it- I won the battle even without starting it...

Ship balance: for my taste now the Narn fighters are too strong... Most of the time they are a lot, and stronger than the centaurian fighters... I also couldn't recall that I have seen this type of narn fighter in the series. What I remember is that Narn fighters were more like miniature battleships regarding the shape. Now i will run and try your last update :-) Good work anyway!

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Yeah, I've comboed lots of mods before. That said you're probably right that I just missed something obvious, but obvious or not, I couldn't figure out what it was!

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

That's odd about the 3rdspace alien quest, I actually just went through it not long ago without a problem, was even able to beat them with the help of a cloak. I'll play around with it more when I get the chance, anybody else had this problem?

With the Narn gorith fighter I don't recall seeing it in the series either. I believe the only one they showed was the Frazi fighter, which I actually have a nice image of. I didn't want to put it in because the Narn already have a fighter and it seemed like a waste since you can't really see the fighter too well anyways. If alot of people want it in (or I just get the coding itch) I'll put it in, probably as a replacement for the gorith fighter, though I'd prolly keep the gorith fighter and use it as a narn ally.

In the latest update I tweaked the shielding on the fighters and made them easier to kill since they never really seemed all that sturdy in the series. I may need to actually increase the number of fighters to compensate for this though.

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

Getting the impression that on large maps events and quests still are erroneous sometimes. For example, yesterday (using the Omega) I got Vree's beacon but Vree could not be summoned. And I also had the Pak'Ma'Ra ally, but with the text (when you fly Victory class) rejecting him due to his smell. I still got the ship, though...

Re: Updated mod: The Babylon Project
 

That's largely my fault. Due to time constraints (i.e. not having very much of it), most of my testing consists of just running through the game on default settings with a whitestar. Not incredibly professional, I know.

With the Vree (and Tirk), I've changed the coding around some and made it so they actually appear on map, this may or may not fix that issue. Were they not being summoned into combat or on the star map or both?

The text for the Pak'ma'ra ally is fairly similar for both the victory mission and the others, I think a bad smell is mentioned in both versions and that he needs to remain on his own ship (which I figured would explain the extra ship in your flotilla). It may be that or its possible something is out of whack in the large map version.