OK, i tried out the mod and the first 3 times i got a CTD when i clicked for next turn on the first turn. 4th game i started, instead of fortifying my PDF i sent it out to explore, no CTD and i made it to turn 108 before i had a CTD. I ran the civ checker and that threw up no xml errors other than 4 i'd already been warned about. After checking them out i found that you can't fix them or remove them as they are an important part of the game. So at the moment i'm at a loss to explain the CTD. Now if someone could tell me how to run/use the debug mode i might get a lot further. I've just added the Military Transport unit, (an xml modified colony ship lol) and that seems to be working fine apart from the aforementioned CTD's.
A Babylon 5 Mod for the Final Frontier Mod
- Thread starter PsiCorps
- Start date
I didn't know that; could be very useful.
About the Military Transport: what does it do? (I've been thinking about something like that for MOO2Civ.)
Sorry, don't know what to do about those CTDs either, except: is there a CTD-free version of B5 you could start out from to see what's causing them?
At the moment it is purely for moving around the Planetary Defence Satellites from one system to another. If we manage to get GROPOS into the game it would also be used for transporting them.
1.10 is not affected by this problem so i will need to compare the two and see what i've added/changed that could be causing the problem.
Same way as all other units load/unload, haven't tried dropping them off in space yet but if you unload on a planet all is fine and works as it should.
That would be the Babylon 5 term for Infantry/Marines. My plan is to have Infantry units stationed in the home system as well as P.D.S.'s. It would be a lot harder to take a system if you not only had to destroy the P.D.S.'s but send in Ground troops to eliminate the planetary defense units in hardened positions. This would of course mean bringing in a new building. Either a Hardened Bunker or Fortified Position. Need to do more work on other stuff before tackling this though lol.
Premier Valle
FF: Babylon 5 Mod Team
@Premier Valle, if you have the time and inclination some new pics for the tech tree would be nice, i've just reused some of the existing ones.
Will do!
GROPOS = GROund POunderS
----
I'm still very busy, but making pics is less time consuming (by far) than coding something. I'll download the latest version ASAP!
About the debug mode, I know that some python stuff can be tested from there, but I'm unsure about other stuff. I also know that some "text boxes" will come out whenever an Exception(*) is caught, but I'm unsure about CTDs.
(*) for those not in the software business an Exception is something like an error, and some measures can be taken to "catch" this exceptions, so that the program will continue executing, however a CTD indicates an uncatched exception or a bigger problem.
Looking forward to seeing your work.
I've been looking at the CTD problem that is being experienced and i think it is linked to the PDF's that the races start with. if you fortify your starting unit the game crashes on the first turn if you automate it to explore the game will play on until one of the other civs builds and fortifies a Frigate (PDF Equivalent) unit. I've done some tinkering on this last night and will play test it again tonight.
Okay, i think i have resolved the early game crash problem but am now faced with a new one. Space stations when built are giving the influence radius for the first turn only. reloading the game makes no difference. Adding the influence radius manually also fails as again, it disappears on the next turn. I've made no changes to anything related to starbases so don't know why this is happening, does anyone have any ideas?
Premier Valle
FF: Babylon 5 Mod Team
I must admit I haven't play-tested this version more than a few times, but I had no problem fortifying on the first turn...
mhhh, that might be my fault... the code that removes the Jump-point culture might had something to do with this, but as far as I can remember this shouldn't mess with the starbases... try using an unmodified CvEventManager.py file.
Premier Valle
FF: Babylon 5 Mod Team
Hello everyone!,
Hmm, do you remember the last change you did before this started to happen?.
About the pics for the tech tree, I almost have them all (basically I just need to convert them to the dds format), but I have a problem with one of the techs, the ZPF one, I have no idea about this one, what is this tech all about? (so I can prepare an appropiate image), I've seen that this tech adds a movement point to the ships, should I follow the Civ convention, and create a pic of a ship and a "+" symbol?, or is there something else about this tech?
Hmm, do you remember the last change you did before this started to happen?.
About the pics for the tech tree, I almost have them all (basically I just need to convert them to the dds format), but I have a problem with one of the techs, the ZPF one, I have no idea about this one, what is this tech all about? (so I can prepare an appropiate image), I've seen that this tech adds a movement point to the ships, should I follow the Civ convention, and create a pic of a ship and a "+" symbol?, or is there something else about this tech?
Looks good to me. Just found the mod. However, I have some questions which I'd rather have addressed.
A. Is the unofficial patch really that critical? AFAIK it might make my game incompatible with other mods. And I haven't got a clue as to what it does. Minor bug fixes?
B. I read in one of the earlier posts this mod was Spanish only. Is that still the case. I need it in English. (I did not read through all the 28 pages, I'm not that hardcore.)
A. Is the unofficial patch really that critical? AFAIK it might make my game incompatible with other mods. And I haven't got a clue as to what it does. Minor bug fixes?
B. I read in one of the earlier posts this mod was Spanish only. Is that still the case. I need it in English. (I did not read through all the 28 pages, I'm not that hardcore.)
Premier Valle
FF: Babylon 5 Mod Team
Hello ZUP!, welcome! 
I can answer the question B, The mod is in english. Right from the start the mod has been developed in english, what happened is that I had civ in spanish, so some screenshots had spanish stuff, but I have switched to english.
About the unofficial patch, I never used it... and as far as I can remember since the 3.17 migration, we've been only using the official release.
Again, welcome around!
The
are on my account!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update:
The pics for the new techs are ready...
Perhaps the ZPF needs some other button,... but in the mean time
From left to right:
· Adv Cyernetics
· Adv ECM
· Adv Genetic Engineering
· Adv Sensors
· Adv Space Medicine
· Asteroid Mining
· Direct Mental Interface Computers
· Early SpaceCraft
· ECM
· Genetic Engineering
· Improved ECM
· Improved Sensors
· Medical DataBase
· Micro Fusion Reactors
· Military Elite
· Military SpaceCraft
· Semi Sentient Computers
· Sensor Systems
· Space Medicine
· Stealth Technology
· ZPF HyperSpace Tab
I can answer the question B, The mod is in english. Right from the start the mod has been developed in english, what happened is that I had civ in spanish, so some screenshots had spanish stuff, but I have switched to english.
About the unofficial patch, I never used it... and as far as I can remember since the 3.17 migration, we've been only using the official release.
Again, welcome around!
The
are on my account!--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Update:
The pics for the new techs are ready...
Perhaps the ZPF needs some other button,... but in the mean time
From left to right:
· Adv Cyernetics
· Adv ECM
· Adv Genetic Engineering
· Adv Sensors
· Adv Space Medicine
· Asteroid Mining
· Direct Mental Interface Computers
· Early SpaceCraft
· ECM
· Genetic Engineering
· Improved ECM
· Improved Sensors
· Medical DataBase
· Micro Fusion Reactors
· Military Elite
· Military SpaceCraft
· Semi Sentient Computers
· Sensor Systems
· Space Medicine
· Stealth Technology
· ZPF HyperSpace Tab
To me it looked rather unfinished. And I got an early ctd which repeated itself on reload.
I too encountered the 'starbases don't give culture' inconvenience. Though it may be a feature.
Also I noticed many techs don't give access to anything (only act as prerequisites for other techs). Will you implement more stuff in the future. Some techs were labeled 'theory' so I assume there will still be empty techs. And then the number of ship speed techs ... why so many?
Production costs are ridiculous, it is just way too easy to build every building on every planet in a system. And what use is it to me that I have enough hammers to build 2 ships/turn? Tactically production overflowing for buildings is only viable when there are buildings left to build. Simply increasing production cost for everything remedies the situation.
And the civs ... the only difference is names? (And civ traits but that hardly counts.) This really bugged me in FF as well, but they are all humans so lack of imagination is understandable (though inexcusable). But since when do Narn ships have the same combat capabilities than Earth ships? It makes sense to me that different kinds of ships have different numbers for combat strength (including modifiers). Especially the game needs to be less rock, paper, scissors. It is simple to implement but not a good solution imo.
Complaits aside, and then to my suggested additions.
Is there any plan to include playable Vorlons and Shadows? I'd love to see the latter at least. But they'd fit bad in equal footing games I'm afraid. Perhaps if there are scenarios? Or they could be spawned in midgame like Infernals and Mercurians in FfH. Possibly the first one to make contact with Vorlons gets an opportunity to choose whether to switch to Vorlons. Obviously making contact with Vorlons will not go the plain see them, know them, speak their language too and . .. .. .. . way (they are not in game yet, needs a quest I think). Since Vorlons are about stability, the civ to make contact gets a 'no anarchy' leader trait (Vorlons have this as well. Likewise discovering a hyperspace anomaly related to Shadows or some Shadow artifact could trigger a quest to complete. The end result is that the civ finds out Shadows are not quite gone yet. Then it's a decision whether to stay with The civ to complete this quest gets a major research boost (needs balance testing, has to be significant but not gamebreakingly so) whether the player keeps playing them or not. Obviously both are first come, first and only served. Actually the quests should start after discovery of certain tech. Something to do with Alien diplomacy for Vorlons and 'interstellar archeology' for Shadows. These quests need to be something AI can do too, however.
When Shadows and Vorlons are spawned, they are immediately very advanced technologically. Vorlons give and receive far smaller positive diplomacy modifiers than you have between other species. It is still possible, though very difficult to get agreements with them. Simple open borders with them is a major achievement. A defensive pact and you seriously rock in CIV diplomacy. (Permanent alliances are dumb in a 4X game so might as well make it impossible with them, because it is impossible to get such good relations. Otherwise you end up with a young species with Vorlon level technology.) The Shadows on the other hand don't do diplomacy beyond basic peace agreement. All of their ships can enter rival territory at will though. They can capitulate other civs. They cannot attack other civs without a DoW. Though it may seem odd, there needs to be some kind of mechanic to make Vorlons and Shadows less likely to declare war on one another. At least early on. (They did not go after the other's Homeworld even though they certainly had the big enough guns.)
There are too few other first ones left to make up a viable civ, possibly a neutral ship spawned by a very, very unlikely random event (1 in 10000? It's a big galaxy and there are only a handful.). If you don't bother them, they don't bother you. However, there should be some benefit for removing them, a free technology perhaps? That salvage has got to be valuable.
And we seriously need stack attack from DCM. Otherwise the weakest ships are useless. (But we can have lots and lots and lots of them.) Capital ships should take long to build and cost way more maintenance than destroyers.
Is deep space implemented? Aka conditions are way different inside solar systems than in interstellar space. I noticed my solar system plots said 'flood plain/space' while outside it was plain 'space'. If there is deep space, what does it do?
Yeah, it is a wishlist ...
I too encountered the 'starbases don't give culture' inconvenience. Though it may be a feature.
Also I noticed many techs don't give access to anything (only act as prerequisites for other techs). Will you implement more stuff in the future. Some techs were labeled 'theory' so I assume there will still be empty techs. And then the number of ship speed techs ... why so many?
Production costs are ridiculous, it is just way too easy to build every building on every planet in a system. And what use is it to me that I have enough hammers to build 2 ships/turn? Tactically production overflowing for buildings is only viable when there are buildings left to build. Simply increasing production cost for everything remedies the situation.
And the civs ... the only difference is names? (And civ traits but that hardly counts.) This really bugged me in FF as well, but they are all humans so lack of imagination is understandable (though inexcusable). But since when do Narn ships have the same combat capabilities than Earth ships? It makes sense to me that different kinds of ships have different numbers for combat strength (including modifiers). Especially the game needs to be less rock, paper, scissors. It is simple to implement but not a good solution imo.
Complaits aside, and then to my suggested additions.
Is there any plan to include playable Vorlons and Shadows? I'd love to see the latter at least. But they'd fit bad in equal footing games I'm afraid. Perhaps if there are scenarios? Or they could be spawned in midgame like Infernals and Mercurians in FfH. Possibly the first one to make contact with Vorlons gets an opportunity to choose whether to switch to Vorlons. Obviously making contact with Vorlons will not go the plain see them, know them, speak their language too and . .. .. .. . way (they are not in game yet, needs a quest I think). Since Vorlons are about stability, the civ to make contact gets a 'no anarchy' leader trait (Vorlons have this as well. Likewise discovering a hyperspace anomaly related to Shadows or some Shadow artifact could trigger a quest to complete. The end result is that the civ finds out Shadows are not quite gone yet. Then it's a decision whether to stay with The civ to complete this quest gets a major research boost (needs balance testing, has to be significant but not gamebreakingly so) whether the player keeps playing them or not. Obviously both are first come, first and only served. Actually the quests should start after discovery of certain tech. Something to do with Alien diplomacy for Vorlons and 'interstellar archeology' for Shadows. These quests need to be something AI can do too, however.
When Shadows and Vorlons are spawned, they are immediately very advanced technologically. Vorlons give and receive far smaller positive diplomacy modifiers than you have between other species. It is still possible, though very difficult to get agreements with them. Simple open borders with them is a major achievement. A defensive pact and you seriously rock in CIV diplomacy. (Permanent alliances are dumb in a 4X game so might as well make it impossible with them, because it is impossible to get such good relations. Otherwise you end up with a young species with Vorlon level technology.) The Shadows on the other hand don't do diplomacy beyond basic peace agreement. All of their ships can enter rival territory at will though. They can capitulate other civs. They cannot attack other civs without a DoW. Though it may seem odd, there needs to be some kind of mechanic to make Vorlons and Shadows less likely to declare war on one another. At least early on. (They did not go after the other's Homeworld even though they certainly had the big enough guns.)
There are too few other first ones left to make up a viable civ, possibly a neutral ship spawned by a very, very unlikely random event (1 in 10000? It's a big galaxy and there are only a handful.). If you don't bother them, they don't bother you. However, there should be some benefit for removing them, a free technology perhaps? That salvage has got to be valuable.
And we seriously need stack attack from DCM. Otherwise the weakest ships are useless. (But we can have lots and lots and lots of them.) Capital ships should take long to build and cost way more maintenance than destroyers.
Is deep space implemented? Aka conditions are way different inside solar systems than in interstellar space. I noticed my solar system plots said 'flood plain/space' while outside it was plain 'space'. If there is deep space, what does it do?
Yeah, it is a wishlist ...
Hi Zup, welcome and thanks for the feedback.
I hope that has answered your questions, if you have any modding skills and can add anything to what we have please feel free to join in.
I have incorporated the unofficial patch into the game simply because other mods that i was playing were using it and i didn't want to take any chances.
I would like to add some new buildings but haven't decided which buildings we need. A building that adds to research, missile silos which need to be built before missiles can be built, a military fortification for ground defence is another, beyond that it's a little difficult to know what buildings to add as so few building types are mentioned in the series. I would also like to add some sort of administrative building that reduces maintenance costs.
Production costs will be addressed as will research costs as new buildings are introduced. It's still a work in progress after all.
Civ Traits aside i wanted each of the civs to start off on the same baseline before altering combat strengths and unit special functions. As there is only Premiere and myself working on this it is a little difficult for me to do everything at the same time. At the moment i'm having problems even getting the mod to load so i'm back tracking on things i've done to try and find out what is causing the problem.
I would love to include them but at the moment working to get the play balance for the races we have is our highest priority. Once we have all of the younger races started then we can start to look at introducing the first ones.
I don't have the required skills to know how to even start adding the stack attack part of DCM, if you know how to add it in please join the team. Capital Ships build costs will be increased as mentioned above with production costs.
Not at the moment, we would need to have events enabled in order to reflect on things that might happen in deep space. I would like it to be like one of the previous civs where ships would be lost at sea if they strayed to far out to sea but again i lack the required skills for this.
I hope that has answered your questions, if you have any modding skills and can add anything to what we have please feel free to join in.
Premier Valle
FF: Babylon 5 Mod Team
October 26; Geneva, Earth. Today Earth's scientist and engineers have succeded on a longly expected task: To make a capital ship jump capable.
As you may recall Earthfleet had already accomplished to build a ship capable of opening a jump point, but in order to create the hyperspace vortex all the ship's engine power was drained, leaving the ship's thrust engine powerless, and therefore incapable of reaching the jump point before it closes.
Today's test involved a capital ship capable of opening a jump point, and actually making the jump. The ship's fighter screen and an escort destroyer were also able to jump through the same vortex.
As you may recall Earthfleet had already accomplished to build a ship capable of opening a jump point, but in order to create the hyperspace vortex all the ship's engine power was drained, leaving the ship's thrust engine powerless, and therefore incapable of reaching the jump point before it closes.
Today's test involved a capital ship capable of opening a jump point, and actually making the jump. The ship's fighter screen and an escort destroyer were also able to jump through the same vortex.
This achievement became possible thanks to a new approach in the ship's design. A separate engine called "Jump Engine" enabled the ship to open the jump point, leaving the thrust engine's power untouched, enabling the ship to reach the vortex and travel through hyperspace with the others ships. A few hours later all ships jumped back into normal space in a nearby planetary system.
Though this accomplishment comes with a cost. The second engine, and the more complex design increase production costs, so the senate might not look at this as a great achievement when it comes to the budget, but the military and commertial opportunities that will become possible once Earth's ships start to take advantage of this new design, more than make up for the construction costs.
Earthdome engineers say that it is possible to build a ship without the jump engine, and equipping it later into the ship, This would allow a battle group to travel through hyperspace even if only one ship is equipped with a jump engine, because, after all, thrust and navigation are provided by separate systems.
This modular design allows a ship to become operational, even before it becomes jump capable on its own right. Also this doesn't only mean a more complex production but a more complex ship administration, however, fleet officers have received this new development with much optimism, and expect the next generation of Earth's capital ships to be equipped with the jump engine.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello everyone!, I'm quite happy with this, but I would like to know what do you thik of it.
I have removed the ships capability to create its own jump point, but added the jump engine, this way, the jump engine's movement points are the ones to be wasted, but since the ship is carrying the jump engine, when the "paradrop" is completed, the jump engine is taken along with the ship.
I also tested (as can be seen in the pics) the capability of carrying the jump engine and a fighter squadron when making the jump, it worked fairly well, and I believe this is the hyperspace that should be added to the mod (rather than the one I first released).
Now the ship can make the jump. But on the down side, the jump engine has to be built, and managed in game, so it may become more complex, tho not that much, but still I want to know what you have to say.
On the even bigger down side, the jump engine must have at least a single movement point, making it capable of moving through the universe on its own (without a carrier ship) wich is not a very good thing, but since the jump engine unit should only be capable of moving and opening jump points (its not even capable of making the jump on its own
) I thrust that the AI will not make use of it.
I also removed the code that refilled the movement points of the other ships (not the one that created the jump point, just worked for the others in the same tile) because other wise infinite jump points could be created with only two ships (or a ship with two jump engines). This way only a single jump can be made at a determined turn. after all, if a ship attempts to jump but has not enough speed, it will be destroyed by the closing vortex.
Though this accomplishment comes with a cost. The second engine, and the more complex design increase production costs, so the senate might not look at this as a great achievement when it comes to the budget, but the military and commertial opportunities that will become possible once Earth's ships start to take advantage of this new design, more than make up for the construction costs.
Earthdome engineers say that it is possible to build a ship without the jump engine, and equipping it later into the ship, This would allow a battle group to travel through hyperspace even if only one ship is equipped with a jump engine, because, after all, thrust and navigation are provided by separate systems.
This modular design allows a ship to become operational, even before it becomes jump capable on its own right. Also this doesn't only mean a more complex production but a more complex ship administration, however, fleet officers have received this new development with much optimism, and expect the next generation of Earth's capital ships to be equipped with the jump engine.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello everyone!, I'm quite happy with this, but I would like to know what do you thik of it.
I have removed the ships capability to create its own jump point, but added the jump engine, this way, the jump engine's movement points are the ones to be wasted, but since the ship is carrying the jump engine, when the "paradrop" is completed, the jump engine is taken along with the ship.
I also tested (as can be seen in the pics) the capability of carrying the jump engine and a fighter squadron when making the jump, it worked fairly well, and I believe this is the hyperspace that should be added to the mod (rather than the one I first released).
Now the ship can make the jump. But on the down side, the jump engine has to be built, and managed in game, so it may become more complex, tho not that much, but still I want to know what you have to say.
On the even bigger down side, the jump engine must have at least a single movement point, making it capable of moving through the universe on its own (without a carrier ship) wich is not a very good thing, but since the jump engine unit should only be capable of moving and opening jump points (its not even capable of making the jump on its own
) I thrust that the AI will not make use of it.I also removed the code that refilled the movement points of the other ships (not the one that created the jump point, just worked for the others in the same tile) because other wise infinite jump points could be created with only two ships (or a ship with two jump engines). This way only a single jump can be made at a determined turn. after all, if a ship attempts to jump but has not enough speed, it will be destroyed by the closing vortex.
