A Babylon 5 Mod for the Final Frontier Mod

[akaine]

Hello there.

Great mod! Actually IMHO the best FF-based mod (conception/techtree/ships/buildings/game dynamics), much more consistent than MOO2 or FF/FFP.

I suspect a small problem though. After playing for a while (~2000 turns) I could observe that AI opponents don't expand. The only case I saw once was an occasional capture of a raider owned star system. But except this particular case they just don't build colony ships at all it seems.

A probable cause to this issue is constant harassment received from the very beginning of a game from raiders who just destroy everything that moves without proper protection. Though I monitored some AI controlled systems later in the game and AI opponents didn't even try to produce colony ships or get beyond their capital systems with more than 1 early recon ship. The only confirmed activity were: planets development and map exploration with the mentioned lonely ships.

So there are two questions for those who've seen more of this mod:
1. Can AI opponents colonize new star systems?
2. What would be the best game parameters to give AI opponents more freedom and make then more challenging / stimulate their expansion?

 

[PsiCorps]

Great mod! Actually IMHO the best FF-based mod (conception/techtree/ships/buildings/game dynamics), much more consistent than MOO2 or FF/FFP.

Thank you for the compliment, it's still a work in progress, which makes your feedback all the more important because it means we're on the right track.

I suspect a small problem though. After playing for a while (~2000 turns) I could observe that AI opponents don't expand. The only case I saw once was an occasional capture of a raider owned star system. But except this particular case they just don't build colony ships at all it seems.

It's possible that this is down to the options selected when starting up a game, I'm currently playtesting changes in a fast game and I've had messages from 2 of the 3 other Civ's i've met that they've colonised one system each beyond their starting system. I'm going to check the WB now and see if it's the first one they've done or if they had settled other systems prior to me meeting them.

A probable cause to this issue is constant harassment received from the very beginning of a game from raiders who just destroy everything that moves without proper protection. Though I monitored some AI controlled systems later in the game and AI opponents didn't even try to produce colony ships or get beyond their capital systems with more than 1 early recon ship. The only confirmed activity were: planets development and map exploration with the mentioned lonely ships.

The raiders are a problem but don't appear until turn 150. On a fast game you should be able to research all the techs required to have built early colony ships and settled at least one or two other systems. In addition scouts may have popped a goody civ that joins you and expands your empire.

So there are two questions for those who've seen more of this mod:
1. Can AI opponents colonize new star systems?

Kind of all ready answered this but yes, they can colonize but not conquer (working on this for the next version).

2. What would be the best game parameters to give AI opponents more freedom and make then more challenging / stimulate their expansion?

I've not tried the aggressive AI option, this may make a difference.

Thanks again for your support, it makes the effort worthwhile.

 

[akaine]

Thanks a lot for the straight answers.

I wouldn't say raiders are much of a trouble for PCs, actually the constant harassment makes it more interesting and consistent with Bab5 universe, and as I noticed their delayed appearance assures the NPCs' starting systems always survive. Just was worried about AI controlled opponents handling them outside their initial star systems' borders.

Still there's another raiders related issue. On larger maps their quantities make the game unplayable since it takes ages to process every turn in the early game stages (don't wanna imagine how much it would take on later stages). As far as I know there are several speed optimizing mods for Civ4 out there which could substantially reduce the turn processing times. As I noticed your latest compilation (v2.9) is based on FF Plus v1.81, if I'm not mistaken, which already includes some of these patches. So I'm not sure that there is anything that caould be done from the processing side. Instead, probably it would be a good idea to make additional options to reduce raiders numbers even further (one quarter, one 10th, etc.), or even better - to limit them to some absolute max value so the performance impact they produce would become independent from the map size.


Btw, I've noticed two details where I could probably help:

1. Most of buildings and units don't have their description attached. I could help you to fill some descriptions in. Just point me to the right files (I'm new to Civ4 modding, so I don't have a clue).

2. As far as I've seen all ships (except fighters) could be divided into two groups: those that can travel beyond cultural borders and those that can't. It was really confusing when I started playing the mod for the first time, I just couldn't tell which one was of which type before catching the units properties pattern. Probably it would be a good idea to add this concept into unit's properties list.

 

[Premier Valle]

@Akaine
Welcome to the forums! , glad you like our work so far .

Judging by your comment on the raider's behavior it looks like you know B5. You can help us with the unit/building descriptions even if you don't know how to mod Civ4, just coming up with the text will be of great help.

Since PsiCorps is busy with the game mechanics and myself with the 3D we have paid little attention to the text infos, and having tried other mods that lack descriptions it can be difficult to get the hang of the game if you don't previously know the "universe" mechanics.

If you are willing to learn how to mod Civ4 there are a few resources that can help with that, but first you need to know/learn XML (see http://www.w3schools.com/xml/). After that you can see the White Rabbit's tutorial here, that will give you the basics on how to mod Civ4 (XML-wise), after that, understanding how the Text Infos work is piece of cake.

Regarding the ships that cannot move into deep space (space not controlled by the player), that is actually a game mechanic that prevents any ship from heading outside local space until certain tech requirements are fulfilled (i.e. in real life we are at a technological point that we can build ships to travel within our solar system, but not beyond... yet). PsiCorps can give you the details on this,... or you can search this thread a few pages back.

 

[Premier Valle]

So, here is a little teaser of the Mitoc Assault Shuttle, the model is pretty much the same you've seen, the difference is that the amount of polygons used has been reduced.

Spoiler :

 

[PsiCorps]

I'm liking the look of that ship, it's colours are suitably stealth like which I approve of.

 

[Premier Valle]

Hi,

The Assault Shuttle retakes the color scheme of the Jomic Frigate (both from the Mitoc). The idea of using that camouflage pattern came from RL ship camouflage, while the colors are inspired in the Have Blue (the F-117 test bed).

Here is another teaser, this time the Vree Tzymm fighter (tier 2):

Spoiler :

These last two ships aren't yet game-ready.

 

[PsiCorps]

These last two ships aren't yet game-ready.

Why not?

Seriously though, looking forward to getting them into the game as soon as they are ready, they look great.

 

[Premier Valle]

 

[PsiCorps]

Merry christmas everyone, no new version unfortunately, I'm still checking over everything I've done to ensure it is all working correctly.

 

[Premier Valle]

Hello everyone!,

Following with the teasers here is the Drazi Orinthar (which will be the Drazi ELINT):

Spoiler :

I will not be able to get the new ships game-ready until next year. As you can guess there is a lot of RL these days

 

[PsiCorps]

I will not be able to get the new ships game-ready until next year.

That's not to far off, so can we expect them this time next week?

I've been working through the Mod and checking the changes made since the last version, as I've been doing this I came up with a change to one building and two more new ones. I'll get the new ones added and test them, hopefully by the time I've finished all of this the 3 new ships will be ready for inclusion (No pressure Premier) and I can release the next version.

 

[Premier Valle]

Hello everyone!,

Besides wishing you a happy new year! , let me use this post for showcasing the newest ship, this time the Descari Rulnata, originally meant to be a Tier 1 Frigate / Corvette for one of the LoNAW factions it ended looking too powerful for that role so if you agree, we can switch places with the Descari Rulnar (currently a Tier 1 Destroyer).

Rulnata (1)

Spoiler :

Rulnata (2)

Spoiler :

And here is the Rulnar (as a refresher) for you to compare:

Spoiler :

Again, it is not yet game-ready, but I expect to have some time this week to do so.

 

[PsiCorps]

Hello everyone!,

Besides wishing you a happy new year! , let me use this post for showcasing the newest ship, this time the Descari Rulnata, originally meant to be a Tier 1 Frigate / Corvette for one of the LoNAW factions it ended looking too powerful for that role so if you agree, we can switch places with the Descari Rulnar (currently a Tier 1 Destroyer).

Rulnata (1)

Spoiler :

Rulnata (2)

Spoiler :

And here is the Rulnar (as a refresher) for you to compare:

Spoiler :

Again, it is not yet game-ready, but I expect to have some time this week to do so.

Awesome looking ship, looks more like a cruiser class ship though could equally pass for something larger again.

 

[Premier Valle]

Awesome looking ship, looks more like a cruiser class ship though could equally pass for something larger again.

Glad you like it, yeah, it looks larger than it is actually meant to be, I guess it looks that way because there is no point of reference regarding the ship's size.

However, talking about the ship's capabilities we can see that it features:

• 2 Gun turrets: Intended to use pulse weaponry (light)
• 4 large/medium missiles (*)
• 12 medium/small missiles (*)
• Fighter/shuttle bay
• 2 Long range scanners (those two green things in the ship's belly)
• Starbase docking capability (front doors, like the Rulnar)

(* depending on the ship scale)

When compared with the EA Sagittarius, the Rulnata has more "short" range fire power, but the Sagittarius has a lot more missiles.

I believe it could fit any of the two roles, either Frigate or Destroyer (Tier 1), but its too undercapable to be a cruiser (although I admit that when I was designing/building it I was thinking "cruiser!", but then I remembered the role this ship would play ).

I guess it all comes down to the scale we apply on it.

 

[God-Emperor]

I think the apparent scale is largely due to the number of decks in the tower part, as indicated by the number of layers of windows. The tower part of the Rulnata appears to be something like 6 decks tall. The long tower part of the Rulnar shows only one deck's worth of windows plus a windowless tower that appears to be 1.5 to 2 decks tall above that. So based on the apparent number of decks and assuming they are each the same height on the two ships, the Rulnata seems to be at least twice as tall as the Rulnar, and probably a bit longer too.

 

[Premier Valle]

I think the apparent scale is largely due to the number of decks in the tower part, as indicated by the number of layers of windows. The tower part of the Rulnata appears to be something like 6 decks tall. The long tower part of the Rulnar shows only one deck's worth of windows plus a windowless tower that appears to be 1.5 to 2 decks tall above that. So based on the apparent number of decks and assuming they are each the same height on the two ships, the Rulnata seems to be at least twice as tall as the Rulnar, and probably a bit longer too.

A very good observation; I have prepared a small quick scene where both ships appear, and have scaled the Rulnata so that its decks are of similar height to those of the Rulnar, here are the results:

4 views (ortho):

Spoiler :

Render:

Spoiler :

So, God-Emperor is right (as he uses to be ), the Rulnata is taller, and a bit longer, taking this into account we could conclude the following for the Rulnata:

• 2 Medium turrets (pulse weapons)
• 12 small missiles
• 4 medium missiles
• Fighter bay

So it does look like the Rulnata design is the evolution of the Rulnar, further supporting the proposal of using the Rulnar as a Frigate and the Rulnata as a destroyer.

 

[PsiCorps]

A very good observation; I have prepared a small quick scene where both ships appear, and have scaled the Rulnata so that its decks are of similar height to those of the Rulnar, here are the results:

4 views (ortho):

Spoiler :

Render:

Spoiler :

So, God-Emperor is right (as he uses to be ), the Rulnata is taller, and a bit longer, taking this into account we could conclude the following for the Rulnata:

• 2 Medium turrets (pulse weapons)
• 12 small missiles
• 4 medium missiles
• Fighter bay

So it does look like the Rulnata design is the evolution of the Rulnar, further supporting the proposal of using the Rulnar as a Frigate and the Rulnata as a destroyer.

Excellent news, i'll make the required adjustments in the Units file and Text files prior to the next release, which I'm hoping will be soon.

 

[reynanuy]

I just wanted to pop in and say great work everybody, especially to Premier Valle and PsiCorps; whom have maintained this mod going for such a long time. This is probably the best FF based mod by far, probably one of the best all around mods even, and it shows. Awesome job guys! Can't wait to try the new version.

 

[Monaldinio]

Wow Premier!!! Very nice/beautiful Modells!!!