A Babylon 5 Mod for the Final Frontier Mod

[Premier Valle]

Hi every one, today I didn't had any work related stuff to do, so I worked on the tech tree:

FF: B5 v0.1 (No longer available, see post #74)

The package includes:
- Minbari Civilization
- Minbari Leader: Valen
- Major Power's flags
- Modified/New XML files
- Modified Python files
- A few other required graphics

It includes PsiCorps last tech tree revision. And the Python event I talked before.

Instructions:
Make a copy of your FF official Mod, and add/overwritte the official files with the ones provided.

The Techs are all based on a single template, so all cost the same and have pretty much the same values, except those estrictly required for building the tree, I have left balance for later.

If there is some problem, it might be because I forgot to add a file to the package, so notify me if somethings wrong.

About the event, it is coded to happen 90% of the times a system is colonized, this is of course for testing purposes, it should have a 10% chance of happening (IMO).
The event does nothing, but here are mi ideas for the choices:
You found a primitive race in this system:
- Make their system our protectorate: -250 , +1 and +1 population in the best planet.
- Enslave them!: - 200 , +1 in the best planet, +1 in the system
- Exterminate them!: +300 , +1 for dead bodies
- Leave them Alone: The system gets colonized anyways

If you want to see my changes to the python code, open the files with notepad (or similar) and look for the "HomeroSOFT" comments

 

[PsiCorps]

Hi Premier i'm at work at the moment but will download and try out the v0.1 as soon as i get home this evening. I'm at work tomorrow so i may not get much time to play with what you've done so far but i will on Sunday. Looking foreward to getting home now. I Like the ideas you have had for the primitive race event.

 

[PsiCorps]

I've tried three different methods of placing the files into the FF mod and every time i try to load the mod i get the following message:

Tag:TECH_GUNPOWDER in info class was incorrect
Current XML file is:xml\units/CIV4 Promotion infos.xml

This is followed by loads more error messages before the game crashes.
I Feel i must be doing something wrong.

 

[Premier Valle]

I've tried three different methods of placing the files into the FF mod and every time i try to load the mod i get the following message:

Tag:TECH_GUNPOWDER in info class was incorrect
Current XML file is:xml\units/CIV4 Promotion infos.xml

This is followed by loads more error messages before the game crashes.
I Feel i must be doing something wrong.

What? , Now I fear for your game integrity.

The TECH_GUNPOWDER has nothing to do with FF or FF:B5, so I presume you put the files in the wrong folders, wich leads me to believe that your game integrity has been compromised...

OK some more detailed instructions (sorry if I state something very obvious, but it is in my experience that when dealing with weird errors/bugs is best to check everything ):

- Copy the ".../Program Files/Firaxis Games/Sid Meier's Civilization 4/Beyond the Sword/Mods/Final Frontier" folder to the ".../Documents and Settings/<USERNAME>/My Documents/My Games/Beyond the Sword/MODS/"
As far as I know there shouldn't be any problem if the first folder is used for your mods, but I find best to use the "My Games" one for my mods (in terms of organization).

- Rename the "Final Frontier" folder in ".../My games/..." to "FF B5" (or whatever you want to call it)

- In the newly renamed folder (B5) add the new files to the folders, overwrite if necessary. Be carefull to follow the same folder structure.

- Do NOT change the full folder structure with the one provided, overwrite the files or add them if necessary.
- XML files are to be replaced with the ones provided.
- Python files (*.py) are to be replaced as well.
- DDS files are to be added to the corresponding folder, if the folder does not exist, create it.
- The provided folder structure is mainly a guide for placing/replacing files.

- The "...MODS/B5/Assets/" folder is the root location for XML, Art and Python files.

I hope this helps.
--------------------------------
On other bussines, I'm having problems with the "primitive race" event, the last screenshot is just a... notifying popup, but what is needed is feedback from the user, I'm trying new code, but either it just don't work or messes with the game interface (planets dissapear, no science slider, etc...), but sometimes if I try the code directly on the game console "it works", but once in the file everything gets messed up :suicide:, anyway, I'll keep into it.

 

[PsiCorps]

Well, I definitley did something wrong last night. When i finish work today i shall go through everything step by step and make sure i haven't missed anything.

 

[PsiCorps]

I Got it working.
Made some school boy errors when i was doing the file replacements but it's all sorted now.
Some of the things i noticed when setting up a Custom Game were as follows.

1. The Era button should be removed for this Mod or if not removable have only one option. The option being - 3rd Age of Mankind. Let's be true to B5.

2. The map button has all the options on it. If we want to have the best B5 mod available then we need to have only one map option available. The option I feel we should go for is B5 Universe size as the only way to play the Mod and get that B5 experience will be to have all the Major and Minor races involved.

Once i got the game started i noticed that all Civics were available to me(playing as Valen) I guess i got about 50 turns played before i got CTD'd.
This is my PC failing, nothing to do with the mod. I sometimes have to do 3 or 4 restarts before the system is stable enough to run Civ for a prolonged period.

Other than that, i'm well pleased with everything you've done so far and we (you) have managed to get further than i thought possible.

 

[Premier Valle]

1. The Era button should be removed for this Mod or if not removable have only one option. The option being - 3rd Age of Mankind. Let's be true to B5.

Agreed, I have had some thoughts on this before, but I guess we cannot call it "3rd Age of Mankind", because, well, not everyone will be human in the game , but we could call it "3rd Age" or something, I believe this can be changed in the TEXT entries, but haven't looked into it, and once we give the races some starting techs, they will all be in the "space age" right from the start.

2. The map button has all the options on it. If we want to have the best B5 mod available then we need to have only one map option available. The option I feel we should go for is B5 Universe size as the only way to play the Mod and get that B5 experience will be to have all the Major and Minor races involved.

I also noticed this, and did some test, It is not the modded files fault, when I did another copy of FF without any changes all the map scripts appeared there, I have no clue about it. And talking about the map size, I do not know if this "universe" size only is a good way to go, I never play maps smaller than "standard size" (only use "duel" for mod testing), so I agree, but I'm not sure about other people. Anyway I also have no clue about this, perhaps it is in the map script, I believe these are in python, but I have my hand full with the event thing, so I'll leave this for later.
I found the other day this thread haven't tried it yet, but sounds good.

Once i got the game started i noticed that all Civics were available to me(playing as Valen) I guess i got about 50 turns played before i got CTD'd.
This is my PC failing, nothing to do with the mod. I sometimes have to do 3 or 4 restarts before the system is stable enough to run Civ for a prolonged period.

Yes all the civics/values are available right from the start, because in the <Prereqtech> tags I set all to NONE, so there would be no incompatibility with the new tech tree, this can easily be adressed, do you think we should keep the FF civics/values?

And speaking about the tech tree, what do you think of it?, I believe we have to add more prerequisites for some techs, so you can not beeline right to planet killers (bad example )

 

[PsiCorps]

And speaking about the tech tree, what do you think of it?, I believe we have to add more prerequisites for some techs, so you can not beeline right to planet killers (bad example )

Agreed. On the last version of the Tech Tree I posted (revision2) i put some notes on the techs. To build a planet killer players would have to know all of the other techs that lead up to it. So having one of the techs isn't sufficient to build a planet killer they would need all 5 of the previous techs.

I would like to replace the FF Civics & Values but i think we should sort out the tech tree first. Decide on what Techs will give acess to which building/civics/units or values(if we have them)

I've been using Kael's MSMD: How to Create a Mod (video demo). I got as far as step 2 of the How to add a leader when I realised i can't save pictures as DDS files. So for the moment my creation of the G'Kar Leaderhead has been put on hold. Not going to give up yet though, I'm sure there's other stuff i can learn whilst waiting for the right software.

 

[Rex rgis of Ter]

For the minor civilizations, make them function like normal civs, but no diplomacy. Have the peace/war mechanic for independents in RFC work. Then if your are at peace with the civ, and have a certain tech, you can build a project to enter OP and diplomacy with the civ.

 

[Premier Valle]

@PsiCorps
Yes, the planet killer tech only shows an arrow, but requires all other 5 techs, others like the small attack aircraft, also require the Rail Gun tech.

I agree, once the buildings/units star falling into place we'll define other possible requiriments.

About the DDS convertion, I use DXTBmp, and also Irfanview, The Gimp and MS-Paint for the image editing.

@Rex
I'm not familiar with RFC, is it Rhye's and Fall of Civ??

 

[PsiCorps]

Well, since my last post i will be getting Adobe photoshop sometime in the week so i can continue with my construction of the Narn leaderhead/civilization.
I've been making some notes on traits for the 4 major races. Here are my suggestions.

Spoiler :

Human - Industrious - +2 Production
Narn - Spiritual - +2 Happiness
Minbari - Scientific - +2 Science
Centauri - Expansive - +2 Health

All of this is based on the histories for the races found here http://worldsofjms.com/

I've also been looking at getting rid of religion but couldn't decide what to replace it with. Until now that is. How about Outlook instead of religion. Here's what i've come up with.

Spoiler :

None - (Game start)
Isolationist - Players can establish embassies, sign defence pacts and have limited trade agreements/routes but no open borders.
Xenophobic - Players cannot establish embassies, sign defence pacts, trade or have open borders. Military alliances can be made against a common enemy but the xenophobic race must initiate the alliance.
Foundationist - Players can have as many trade routes as possible, sign defence treaties and alliances, establish embassies and agree open borders.

Let me know what you think.

 

[Premier Valle]

Hi, All!

I like the traits, tho I'm not sure about the Narn having +2 I'll check the link, the rest seem fine to me, specially the Minbari, giving them a boost in research honors the "oldest of the young races", however this could be overpowering this faction, but I like it.

About the Values:
- Foundationism is an Earth religion (Dr. Franklin's), so I believe it shouldn't be there,
- I like this Xenofobic/isolationist idea, but I believe this could be better as "economic civics", but I haven't thinked on this much.

On the other hand, I remembered that in previous post we talked about changing traits in-game, replacing the values with "mini-traits" could be a way to do this.

Alright, into the news, I'm getting frustrated with the event thing, so I have stopped working actively on it, and will request for help in the SDK/Python subforums.
So I got into something new:

Spoiler :

And here are the required files: B5 Main Menu (no longer available, new version in post #74)
Just extract the "main menu" folder in ".../art/interface/", overwriting the existing folder. Of course the image is temporal, and should be replaced with a better one. Thanks to C.Roland for his template.
I was thinking on the title, how should we call the mod?:
- FF: Babylon 5
- FF: The Babylon Project

 

[Dewion]

Hi everyone..

excellent idea to make this mod, i'm a big fan of babylon 5..

if i could help it'll be great, but i have very minimal knowledge of modding.. :/
maybe i should start learning..

but anyway, i have a silly idea to that hyperspace thing:

around the starsystem, there could be certain area of normal space, where can asteroids be found and recources in the asteroids. i dont know how many squares it should be, maybe 8x8 or even more. after that, there could be new type of terrain; "hyperspace" if it could be even same changing color than in babylon 5 it would look awesome, unique. no ship could enter that terrain, until certain research is completed, which would give a new building and unit; "jump gate" and "explorer", first starsystem has to build the jump gate, after that the explorer could enter the hyperspace terrain and lay down "hyperspace beacons", then other units could follow the path made by the explorer. in hyperspace terrain all units could only see 1 square around them, if any other unit than explorer end its turn when no beacons are in its line of sight, it would have 75% change to disappear or move even futher away from the beacons. of cource explorers could try to rescue those poor, unlucky units. Later bigger ships wouldn't need jumpgate to enter the hyperspace, as they could have own hyperspace engine. i dont know how it could be done that local starsystem must have the gate built before anyone can leave the system.

and i dont know if that style would follow very well babylon 5 universe, but i think it would be cool..

what do u guys think?

 

[Premier Valle]

Hi Dewion, welcome aboard!

Just a mini update, the thing with the other kind of maps other than Final Frontier can be solved by doing this:

On the "Babylon 5" mod folder, in the "Babylon 5.ini" there is a line:

; Allow public maps to be used with this mod
AllowPublicMaps = 1

change the value to 0 and you are good to go!

----------------
On another subject the loading screen (when starting a game) is still the FF one, I'm on to it!

@Dewion
There is a problem with your idea, it requires a new terrain type, and this carries another problem, a new map script will be required.
----------------
OK, I have addressed the Loading screen problem, here is a new version of the mod files v0.1.2 it includes all changes of the previous version, plus the new "main screen" and "loading screen", you know the instructions (post #64)

 

[Dewion]

i meant, if it could be possible, would it be good idea..

but also "deep space" would need it, doesn't it work if the terrains name and graphics only change?
does it need map script if we make scenario?

i could try and make babylon 5 universe map, but would that even be necessary?

i wont be much help since i dont know how to mod or make graphics.. :/

we need to find the right persons to do the things we cant..
now we can only plan those we want to be changed..

 

[PsiCorps]

Hi All and welcome to Dewion.

The way i had envisaged the map working was as follows.

Spoiler :

We keep the Map generation system as FF standard although i think features should be sparse all the time. Keep space as spacebut with a slower movement rate when outside of your explored territory (area within Cultural Borders or shall we call it Sphere of influence?)
Hyperspace gates either when found or constructed would always be on the edge of the solar systems. It would be constructed in a similar manner to a fort and would provide the airport function to all space capable vessels. They could then 'jump' (rebase) to any another hyperspace gate in the network. Some combat ships would have the paratroop ability to move and attack immeadiately after jumping but there would be a proportionate loss of their movement points depending on how far they have jumped. EG. The Whitestar took 2 days to travel to Earth in one of the episodes. To reflect this and the hazards of hyperspace travel any ship entering hyperspace is gone for one turn. So if a ship jumped from Earth to Epsilon III on turn 215, it would appear at the Epsilon III jump gate on turn 217 with 3 out of 8 movement points left.
Larger combat ships equiped with jump engines wouldn't need the jump gate to move somewhere else the ability to open a jump point themselves will probably be the hardest fix of the lot to do in this mod.
There should also be a 1% chance of having had something happen in hyperspace. So it is possible a ship could be damaged or be lost totally in that intervening turn.

I know that this is a really ambitious idea but from what i've seen and heard all over the forums is that nothing is impossible. All we need to do is ask the right question's, how were they going to tackle warp travel in the Star Trek mod i've seen mentioned?

Looking forward to seeing the additions you have made to the work done so far Premier Valle once i've gone through my files.

I've managed to get the image i want for G'Kar i just need to get it saved as a DDS file now. So i'm hoping i'll have my own sample civ to display before very long.

 

[Dewion]

hey, thats a great idea, much easier than mine..

larger ships could able to rebase by themselfs, but it would also take their movement points.. i think it could be done with promotion? "jump engine"..

and yes, there should be 5% chance that ship is damaged, maybe just 5-10% of its strength. and 1% chance that ship is lost.. those doesn't sound much, but any higher and i would be losing my ships all the time..

could it be possible that longer distance would take more turns? maybe 15 squares per 1 turn? but how? its rather stupid to jump from the other side of galaxy to the other side in 1 turn..
and if the range of "rebase" could be change? in original FF u could rebase missiles from anywhere to anywhere, and thats silly...

i think it would be better that workers could build those gates, it would consume the worker. would it be possible only with certain research or resource? and i think the jump gate could be built any where inside "sphere of influence"?

this whole thing would make it rather slow to build interstellar empire, but i dont mind..

i can already see those brave workers and few escorts to leave home star to the unknow.. they will advance slowly and as soon as they find something interesting, one worker could build starbase and when it is completed another would start to build jumpgate..

*sight* i'm always like this, my imagination gets too far from real. i hope this project can see its end..

and finally, about civs and leaders. i think the "The League of non-aligned worlds" should be playable, and its leader could be sheridan..

i know it wouldn't follow timeline of the series, but just a thought..

 

[Premier Valle]

Hi everyone!

Well, I tried the following:

Give a ship the paratrooper's ability to simulate a jump, it didn't worked because the ship could only jump from a city/system, so I created the Jumpgate improvement using the normal game's "Fort", and it worked, ships were able to jump from the "jumpgate", but only from a jumpgate within the players "sphere of influence ", forts/jumpgates outside of it could not be used for jumps.

Then I thougth on giving the jumpgates some culture, but then only the jumpgates created by X player could be used by X player and not everyone else.

So, for the moment I say we should stay with FF's "warp/jump lanes system" (renaming them to hyperspace route or something // we could disable this lanes until Hyperspace has been researched).
I think that we should first do the basic stuff, and then moving into wilder things (after all, we have no idea how the AI would handle any other form of hyperspace ).

 

[Dewion]

naah, who cares what AI think, we'll play this together online once its finished..

but i think jumpgates should be neutral, so anyone who has starbase near it will own it.. but in this way, other civs wont be able to jump from it.. what if 2 civs have open borders, would that allow a civ to use other civs jumpgate?

and how the trade would work?

 

[PsiCorps]

and finally, about civs and leaders. i think the "The League of non-aligned worlds" should be playable, and its leader could be sheridan..

Nope, this will never happen Sheridan will be a human leader only.

Then I thougth on giving the jumpgates some culture, but then only the jumpgates created by X player could be used by X player and not everyone else.

The Centauri leased the humans access to their jump gate network until they had developed the technology themselves. So it makes sense that gates are controlled by whomever has influence over it and that this is opened up to whoever has an open borders treaty with the gate owner.

So, for the moment I say we should stay with FF's "warp/jump lanes system" (renaming them to hyperspace route or something // we could disable this lanes until Hyperspace has been researched).
I think that we should first do the basic stuff, and then moving into wilder things (after all, we have no idea how the AI would handle any other form of hyperspace).

Agreed, let's get the tech tree, races, civics, traits and ships done first. There's more than enough there to keep us going for a while yet.

In my initial proposal i mentioned asteroid mining.

Asteroid fields should be treated in a similar manner to forests in standard CivIV. A mining ship would go out to the asteroid field and spend a number of turns there before returning or travelling on to another star system to offload its cargo where it is turned into hammers. If a resource is found in an asteroid field the mining ship can construct a mining facility which would consume the unit.

I mentioned this in another thread that Thorgrimm had started and i'll show what i mentioned there next.

Spoiler :

Treat asteroids as a limitless forest plot that can be harvested over and over again but with a variable amount of hammers generated each turn until the plot is exhausted. There may also be a bonus resource discovered. Like a rich Iron, Titanium, Berrylium, Neutronium, Quantium 40 Ore deposit (Randomly generated).

The plot would have a random minimum and maximum value of hammers. E.G plot A of the asteroids has a minimum hammer value of 600 and a maximum of 2000. Each turn a mining ship works the plot it harvest between 40 and 90 hammers from the total. Placing more than 2 mining ships in the same plot runs the risk of accidents. Collisions in space, mining accidents resulting in the loss of a mining ship or 2 and all the resources they mined that turn.

Once again i've suggested something i haven't got a clue about but i'm learning slowly about XML and how it works.

i think it would be better that workers could build those gates, it would consume the worker. would it be possible only with certain research or resource? and i think the jump gate could be built any where inside "sphere of influence"?

Agreed a worker should be used to build the Jump gate but they must have access to Quantium 40 to build one. I Get the impression that Jump gates were built on the edges of Solar systems to avoid the gravity wells of planets.

I have been trying to think about what the timescale of the game should be.

Spoiler :

With all the tech's we have got to research to get to the technology of the series i was thinking start the game in 2050 and have 1 year turns for 50 years then go down to 1 month turns for 50 turns then 2 week turns and then 1 week turns. Obviously this will need tobe looked at once we have all the tech's and build costs worked out. Just something else to think about.

What do you guys think?