A Babylon 5 Mod for the Final Frontier Mod

[PsiCorps]

Thank you all for your feedback, one of the reasons a lot of early ships are equal in strength after they upgrade with jump engines is because I was just trying to get them all in and working. Now that this is done I am working on the ship strengths and trying to balance them out so for example an early destroyer after it has been upgraded is still slightly weaker than the 2nd tier destroyer that follows it.

The interception chance was lowered to 5% because of all the promotions that give an increase to this chance. Should a unit have every promotion available to it then it will have a 95% chance of intercepting. Previously this would have been in the region of 180% chance which was far too high.

I'm also going to add in some more random events which for now will be some of the events available in standard Civ redressed/reworded to fit this Mod.

 

[Doomspark]

Hello again, friends. I've run into a couple of issues and I don't know if they are bugs or if I'm doing something wrong. I'm using version 2.9 of this mod, Warlord level. I'm the Centauri Republic, 6 civilizations, huge map with wormholes. Barbs are turned OFF.

1. Jump points / Jump lanes. I don't understand how these are supposed to work. In the series, they're used to move ships large distances through hyperspace. Once in hyperspace, they move at an accelerated rate until they reach their destination which is (generally) marked by a beacon. So how do I jump a fleet across the map? If a ship builds a jump point, they can only jump 3 or 4 squares ahead, which isn't a gain when it takes a full turn to build the jump point initially.

2. Capturing planets. I thought I had this figured out - I was able to take 2 planets with no problems. The next two that I've attempted to capture, my ground unit lands on the planet but ownership doesn't flip. All known defenses have been destroyed - my ships can't target the systems (I get the empty red circle icon). I'm flummoxed.

Neither of these issues are addressed in the Civilopedia.

 

[Doomspark]

I'm going to be vulgar here and post two replies in sequence.

With regards to the missing / incomplete civilopedia and tooltip text, I'd like to try my hand at fixing some of it.

Example:
DRAZI CIVILIZATION TEXT
The Drazi are reptilian in appearance, with blue-green skin, heavy skull bones, and no nostrils, although they are otherwise humanoid. They are hermaphroditic, and reproduce by means of a "pouch" in one armpit.

Every five Earth years, the Drazi have a "civil war" among two rival factions, green Drazi and purple Drazi. A Drazi's allegiance is decided arbitrarily by choosing a colored sash (either green or purple) from a barrel. There is no inherent motive or reason for the civil war at all, other than tradition. This "civil war" takes the form of a series of (usually) non-lethal contests and the winning side assumes power for the next five years.

 

[PsiCorps]

Hello again, friends. I've run into a couple of issues and I don't know if they are bugs or if I'm doing something wrong. I'm using version 2.9 of this mod, Warlord level. I'm the Centauri Republic, 6 civilizations, huge map with wormholes. Barbs are turned OFF.

1. Jump points / Jump lanes. I don't understand how these are supposed to work. In the series, they're used to move ships large distances through hyperspace. Once in hyperspace, they move at an accelerated rate until they reach their destination which is (generally) marked by a beacon. So how do I jump a fleet across the map? If a ship builds a jump point, they can only jump 3 or 4 squares ahead, which isn't a gain when it takes a full turn to build the jump point initially.

2. Capturing planets. I thought I had this figured out - I was able to take 2 planets with no problems. The next two that I've attempted to capture, my ground unit lands on the planet but ownership doesn't flip. All known defenses have been destroyed - my ships can't target the systems (I get the empty red circle icon). I'm flummoxed.

Neither of these issues are addressed in the Civilopedia.

Thanks for the feedback Doomspark, the only thing that occurs to me is that you may be using the wrong ground troops to land on the system. It has to be the Assault version not the Defence version of your Planetary Combat Troops.

I'm going to be vulgar here and post two replies in sequence.

With regards to the missing / incomplete civilopedia and tooltip text, I'd like to try my hand at fixing some of it.

Example:
DRAZI CIVILIZATION TEXT
The Drazi are reptilian in appearance, with blue-green skin, heavy skull bones, and no nostrils, although they are otherwise humanoid. They are hermaphroditic, and reproduce by means of a "pouch" in one armpit.

Every five Earth years, the Drazi have a "civil war" among two rival factions, green Drazi and purple Drazi. A Drazi's allegiance is decided arbitrarily by choosing a colored sash (either green or purple) from a barrel. There is no inherent motive or reason for the civil war at all, other than tradition. This "civil war" takes the form of a series of (usually) non-lethal contests and the winning side assumes power for the next five years.

Anything you wish to submit to help progress the Mod will be gratefully appreciated and credit given.

 

[Premier Valle]

Hello everyone!,

[...]
1. Jump points / Jump lanes. I don't understand how these are supposed to work. In the series, they're used to move ships large distances through hyperspace. Once in hyperspace, they move at an accelerated rate until they reach their destination which is (generally) marked by a beacon. So how do I jump a fleet across the map? If a ship builds a jump point, they can only jump 3 or 4 squares ahead, which isn't a gain when it takes a full turn to build the jump point initially.
[...]

Jump points/gates/lanes work pretty much the way you described:

• Jump Lanes are the equivalent of "standard hyperspace routes" used by all kinds of ships (military, civilian, others), for transit and commerce.
• Jump Points/Gates are more like "restricted hyperspace routes" where only military ships (or ships with jump engines) can jump into hyperspace.

Yes, a jump point takes a full turn to "open" (which makes sense since the jump engines need to be charged first); but even with this delay there are advantages:

• Making a jump doesn't consume all the movement points, so you get the "jump" plus the remaining movement points. Also, take into consideration that in order to make the biggest jump possible you'll likely need to "recon" the jump target area.
• By making a jump you can "avoid" obstacles, for example, if a nebula is slim enough, you can jump to the other side of it, instead of taking a lengthy detour. This also applies to big radiation clouds or hard-to-navigate areas (such as the spiral map's galaxy center).
• A military advantage is that you can jump straight into an enemy system/colony, instead of having to traverse trough hostile territory (and possibly being subject to enemy harassment (fighters/missiles/bombardment).
• Economically, by using jump points you can get your fleet to its target and back much faster, minimizing the amount of time your ships stay out of friendly space, and therefore, minimizing deployment costs.

Changing topics I wanted to show you the latests, the Drazi StarFalcon (transport) and the Solar Hawk; these are not yet game ready, but they will soon be:


StarFalcon (I read somewhere that this was its name):



SolarHawk:



The SolarHawk kind of reminds me of the more earthly Avro Vulcan.

 

[Doomspark]

Suggestion for tooltips for ground units (using the Centauri as an example). The text can be changed slightly for each civilization.

Imperial Ground Troops
Ground Troops are used for planetary defense. They cannot capture enemy systems.

Imperial Assault Troops
Assault Troops can be used for planetary defense, but their primary purpose is to capture enemy systems.

 

[PsiCorps]

Hello everyone!,


Jump points/gates/lanes work pretty much the way you described:

• Jump Lanes are the equivalent of "standard hyperspace routes" used by all kinds of ships (military, civilian, others), for transit and commerce.
• Jump Points/Gates are more like "restricted hyperspace routes" where only military ships (or ships with jump engines) can jump into hyperspace.

Yes, a jump point takes a full turn to "open" (which makes sense since the jump engines need to be charged first); but even with this delay there are advantages:

• Making a jump doesn't consume all the movement points, so you get the "jump" plus the remaining movement points. Also, take into consideration that in order to make the biggest jump possible you'll likely need to "recon" the jump target area.
• By making a jump you can "avoid" obstacles, for example, if a nebula is slim enough, you can jump to the other side of it, instead of taking a lengthy detour. This also applies to big radiation clouds or hard-to-navigate areas (such as the spiral map's galaxy center).
• A military advantage is that you can jump straight into an enemy system/colony, instead of having to traverse trough hostile territory (and possibly being subject to enemy harassment (fighters/missiles/bombardment).
• Economically, by using jump points you can get your fleet to its target and back much faster, minimizing the amount of time your ships stay out of friendly space, and therefore, minimizing deployment costs.

Changing topics I wanted to show you the latests, the Drazi StarFalcon (transport) and the Solar Hawk; these are not yet game ready, but they will soon be:


StarFalcon (I read somewhere that this was its name):



SolarHawk:



The SolarHawk kind of reminds me of the more earthly Avro Vulcan.

Well well well! A fine looking pair of Drazi ships you have there Premier, I can't wait for them to be delivered from your shipyard.

By Doomspark - Suggestion for tooltips for ground units (using the Centauri as an example). The text can be changed slightly for each civilization.

Imperial Ground Troops
Ground Troops are used for planetary defense. They cannot capture enemy systems.

Imperial Assault Troops
Assault Troops can be used for planetary defense, but their primary purpose is to capture enemy systems.

I like that and will get the necessary changes put in. Thanks Doomspark!

 

[Premier Valle]

Hello everyone!,

As promised, here are the latest Drazi ships, the Star Falcon class transport and the Solar Hawk class cruiser (Tier 1 cruiser).

The Star Falcon:

• Poly Count:1036
• FX extra polys: 100
• Animation: FF Invasion Ship
• Damage/Glow/Gloss: Yes/Yes/Yes

Civilopedia:


Combat:


Damaged:


The Solar Hawk:

• Poly Count:1013
• FX extra polys: 306
• Animation: FF Cruiser
• Damage/Glow/Gloss: Yes/Yes/Yes

Civilopedia:




Combat:


... no, there are no Star Wars ships in this mod .



Damaged:



I just noticed that I haven't released the 15th ship pack, so expect its public release soon.

 

[Doomspark]

Those are some fantastic ships! Can't wait to see them in-game!

Small text issue: The mouse-over text for the Centauri shuttle is the same as for the Caravel in the regular game: "Can carry spies, scouts, missionaries, and Great People." Should be something along the lines of "Carries both offensive and defensive ground troops" if you want one generic description for all civilizations, or "Carries Imperial Guardsmen and Imperial Assault Troops" if you want a tip specific to the Centauri.

When you build an extraction facility on iron, you get the regular game popup "You have located a source of iron! Iron allows your cities to build strong melee units." This obviously needs to be updated; what exactly DOES iron do? Does it boost the capabilities of your ground troops?

Issues with the Radiation Scrubbers: I'm assuming from the name that their sole purpose is to remove radiation. While this is a useful function, it's so limiting that I have yet to build more than one or two throughout the course of a game. I suggest giving them all the capabilities of the regular construction ships, with scrubbing as a "bonus" action. This would make them considerably more useful. It makes sense when you consider that you can upgrade construction ships to scrubbers. Another issue with the scrubber units is that the automation doesn't seem to work properly. I would have expected that an automated scrubber would run around anywhere you have influence and remove radiation clouds. But they don't.

May I ask the reason for the limit on the number of construction ships you can have? If you have a sprawling empire on a huge map, it's impossible for 10 construction ships and 6 rapid construction ships to keep up with it especially later in the game. Allowing scrubbers to act as regular construction ships would help offset this problem.

I do like the limits on the bigger ships.

 

[PsiCorps]

Hello everyone!,

As promised, here are the latest Drazi ships, the Star Falcon class transport and the Solar Hawk class cruiser (Tier 1 cruiser).

The Star Falcon:

• Poly Count:1036
• FX extra polys: 100
• Animation: FF Invasion Ship
• Damage/Glow/Gloss: Yes/Yes/Yes

Civilopedia:


Combat:


Damaged:


The Solar Hawk:

• Poly Count:1013
• FX extra polys: 306
• Animation: FF Cruiser
• Damage/Glow/Gloss: Yes/Yes/Yes

Civilopedia:




Combat:


... no, there are no Star Wars ships in this mod .



Damaged:



I just noticed that I haven't released the 15th ship pack, so expect its public release soon.

That was fast Premier and they look awesome. I'll get them in game as fast as I can.

Those are some fantastic ships! Can't wait to see them in-game!

Small text issue: The mouse-over text for the Centauri shuttle is the same as for the Caravel in the regular game: "Can carry spies, scouts, missionaries, and Great People." Should be something along the lines of "Carries both offensive and defensive ground troops" if you want one generic description for all civilizations, or "Carries Imperial Guardsmen and Imperial Assault Troops" if you want a tip specific to the Centauri.

When you build an extraction facility on iron, you get the regular game popup "You have located a source of iron! Iron allows your cities to build strong melee units." This obviously needs to be updated; what exactly DOES iron do? Does it boost the capabilities of your ground troops?

Issues with the Radiation Scrubbers: I'm assuming from the name that their sole purpose is to remove radiation. While this is a useful function, it's so limiting that I have yet to build more than one or two throughout the course of a game. I suggest giving them all the capabilities of the regular construction ships, with scrubbing as a "bonus" action. This would make them considerably more useful. It makes sense when you consider that you can upgrade construction ships to scrubbers. Another issue with the scrubber units is that the automation doesn't seem to work properly. I would have expected that an automated scrubber would run around anywhere you have influence and remove radiation clouds. But they don't.

May I ask the reason for the limit on the number of construction ships you can have? If you have a sprawling empire on a huge map, it's impossible for 10 construction ships and 6 rapid construction ships to keep up with it especially later in the game. Allowing scrubbers to act as regular construction ships would help offset this problem.

I do like the limits on the bigger ships.

And some more feedback for me to work on, so much to do so little free time!

Thanks Doomspark.

Iron speeds construction of military units by 5%

 

[Doomspark]

I hope I'm not causing you too much trouble with the text updates. I'm not a modder or programmer which is why I've just been putting them here. If you'd like my updates in some other format, please let me know.

I had an idea for a somewhat two-edged addition to the game:

Black Market +2 happiness, -2 commerce, -2 health, costs 100 hammers
Unlocked with Credit Chit and requires a banking system to be already built.
Units built in this system are half price, but take twice as much experience to promote.

 

[PsiCorps]

I had an idea for a somewhat two-edged addition to the game:

Black Market +2 happiness, -2 commerce, -2 health, costs 100 hammers
Unlocked with Credit Chit and requires a banking system to be already built.
Units built in this system are half price, but take twice as much experience to promote.

That's an interesting idea, it may work better as an event or series of events than a building. I'll add this to the list of suggestions and changes I already have and see if I can find a way to do something with a Black Market theme.

 

[Premier Valle]

Hello everyone!,

Just like a few times in the past, I was looking for the next ship to be built and I noticed that ... I didn't knew what to do next; mainly because we talked about the LoNAW reorganization.

So I went a few thread pages ago and noticed that we stopped discussing the issue when I presented the 3-LoNAW faction reorganization, being these factions reorganized following their ideologies and influence criteria.

So we ended with three LoNAW factions:


Based on this, I have prepared the fleet rosters; one slight difference, I added the "Alacan" species to the "pacifist" faction. The ship table is as follows:

Spoiler :

Let me know what you think of it. The Ship table spreadsheet (including a sheet with the designs and links to images of such ships) is available here.



EDIT
====
I found these on youtube:

Link to video.

Link to video.

Link to video.

Link to video.

 

[PsiCorps]

Hello everyone!,

Just like a few times in the past, I was looking for the next ship to be built and I noticed that ... I didn't knew what to do next; mainly because we talked about the LoNAW reorganization.

So I went a few thread pages ago and noticed that we stopped discussing the issue when I presented the 3-LoNAW faction reorganization, being these factions reorganized following their ideologies and influence criteria.

So we ended with three LoNAW factions:


Based on this, I have prepared the fleet rosters; one slight difference, I added the "Alacan" species to the "pacifist" faction. The ship table is as follows:

Spoiler :

Let me know what you think of it. The Ship table spreadsheet (including a sheet with the designs and links to images of such ships) is available here.



EDIT
====
I found these on youtube:

Link to video.

Link to video.

Link to video.

Link to video.

Yep, that was my bad, I got so wrapped up with sorting out the pre jump versions of the ships and fixing some errors that I totally forgot all about the League reorganisation we had been discussing. I'll start the reorganisation along the lines you've suggested. We may need to come up with a couple of new UB's for the new League variants but I'll get the core work done before I start on any new UB's.

I was hoping to get started this weekend but my stepdaughter has broken her foot so I've been sorting her out instead of doing what I wanted.

 

[AbsintheRed]

After carefully looking through all your tables from the last few pages:
I would add the Vree, Abbai and Hyach as full civs
Seemingly they have enough ship designs (at least for a good start), and they are too important/powerful to be clustered into a LoNAW faction

If it's needed, you can always reduce the number of LoNAW factions to 2

 

[PsiCorps]

After carefully looking through all your tables from the last few pages:
I would add the Vree, Abbai and Hyach as full civs
Seemingly they have enough ship designs (at least for a good start), and they are too important/powerful to be clustered into a LoNAW faction

If it's needed, you can always reduce the number of LoNAW factions to 2

Wow...really piling the pressure on Premier to build more ships there AbsintheRed!

Maybe the best way forward will be to do what we have laid out so far and have 3 League factions and then if Premier still doesn't mind building the ships we can slowly expand some of the League factions into stand-alone factions.

A small update from me whilst I'm here. I've gone through the fleet rosters and all ships are now of comparable costs and strengths. Next step is to reduce the fighter carrying capacity in line with some of the previous feedback as well as some of the roster changes suggested in previous posts. Once that's done I'll start on the 3 League factions (Aggressive/Neutral/Pacifist) that have been proposed.

After that I'll continue with trying to get some more events into the Mod before a new version is released.

 

[AbsintheRed]

Wow...really piling the pressure on Premier to build more ships there AbsintheRed!

Oh, I would expand even further if there were enough ship designs
And seemingly Premier enjoy making all these ships for the mod

Ideally I would have the Abbai, Hyach, Vree, pak'ma'ra, Cascor, Descari, Gaim and Markab as full civs (apart from the already decided 7)
This way we would have all the important and known enough civs in the mod.
All of them which were significant enough in the series

The remaining ones could go into one single LoNAW faction. Lumati, Balosian, Hurr, Yolu, Grome, Mitoc, Ipsha, Alacan, Zephir, Llort with 1-2 ships to the table each

So there would be 15+1 factions in the game, which would be enough for not playing always against the same civs
Of course I would give some advantage to the 4 main civs, some sort of small handicap, especially when they are played by the AI
Those should have slightly better chance to be successful than the rest of the civs

Of course this may be too much, mostly because of the lack of ship designs
But adding the Abbai, Hyach and Vree may be possible as separate factions

 

[Premier Valle]

Hi everyone!

I was hoping to get started this weekend but my stepdaughter has broken her foot so I've been sorting her out instead of doing what I wanted.

I hope she recovers soon.

I would add the Vree, Abbai and Hyach as full civs
Seemingly they have enough ship designs (at least for a good start), and they are too important/powerful to be clustered into a LoNAW faction

Wow...really piling the pressure on Premier to build more ships there AbsintheRed!

Maybe the best way forward will be to do what we have laid out so far and have 3 League factions and then if Premier still doesn't mind building the ships we can slowly expand some of the League factions into stand-alone factions.

I agree with PsiCorps on the action plan to take, first the currently 3-LoNAW factions are to be completed, then we can further expand, or else we will never have a full, non-beta release .

I'm even thinking on modelling starbases for each faction (at least for major ones), although I still haven't made a proof of concept for this one.

Oh, I would expand even further if there were enough ship designs
And seemingly Premier enjoy making all these ships for the mod

Indeed, I actually enjoy modelling the ships, even those I have had to design. Lack of ship designs is no issue (I can come up with designs of mine), lack of time is.

So, yeah, I like your idea, but it will take time.



EDIT:
====
BTW, the Zephir are not a species, the Zephir Delta-V is the fighter used by raiders, AFAIK it was one of Earth's first fighters (pre-starfury) no longer in use by the government (maybe for training), but still in production by private companies.

Although I have heard the name "Zenner" (or something like it) to refer to other servants of the Shadows.

EDIT 2:
======
I just noticed that I didn't include explanation for the "*" in the ship tables.

* imported ship

 

[Agent327]

I got a little problem: I installed the latest version (of FF Plus as well), but when starting a game my homeworld has zero pop and in the City Screen it shows up named ??? Any ideas?

 

[PsiCorps]

I got a little problem: I installed the latest version (of FF Plus as well), but when starting a game my homeworld has zero pop and in the City Screen it shows up named ??? Any ideas?

Do you still have the standard FF Mod installed?