A Babylon 5 Mod for the Final Frontier Mod

[PsiCorps]

its a great testing mechanism

I hadn't thought about it that way, good point.

i can update it with your latest changes.

I've sent you a PM about this, i hope to have what i've done uploaded over the weekend (it's a bank holiday in the UK so i have an extra day to do some modding work.)

 

[PsiCorps]

Work progresses, we're currently testing a version that includes BBAI but there is still more to do before we get a version we can release to all of you.
Keldath - tried to send you a PM but your mailbox is full.

 

[Premier Valle]

Hello everyone!,

I have been busy lately in a secret project, but we are still deciding how to implement it. Now, into the ships.

Here is the Brakiri Deveskar Class Carrier, it is an early carrier, it is an old ship (it doesn't even use the gravimetric drive). It has 662 polys and uses the FF Destroyer animation.

Civilopedia:

Combat:

As you can see there is a Narn Fighter in the image, I used it to remark the fact that this is a carrier - and since no Brakiri fighter has been made so far...

Also, as promised, I'll be starting production on the Dilgar ships, so, I have worked on the ship table adding the Dilgar, as you can see I was forced to start using the MK system (tho less than I expected ).

Thorun, Adv. Fighter, Targath, Garasoch, Jashakar, Protra, Delagor, Kahtrik, Omelos, Ochlavita, Tratharti, Athraskala, Mankhat, Mishakur, Deathwalker, Sekmet.

We need a name for the "Advanced Fighter". Again, I was in need to "adjust" some of the ship classes to fit the ones we have in the mod. Let me know what you think on them!.

 

[Ajidica]

The Brakiri ship looks nice. I thought I would see a bit more of them in season 5 given their increased importance.
Would it be possible to throw together a Drazi Sunhawk? I'm just about done with Season 5, and I saw a boatload of them in the Centauri War.

Are there any plans of implementing the Shadow Omega Destroyers or the Drakh Controlled Centauri vessels?

 

[Premier Valle]

Hi!

Would it be possible to throw together a Drazi Sunhawk?

Definitely, they are next in my TODO list, so expect the first Drazi ships when the Brakiri/Dilgar ship list closes to completion.

Are there any plans of implementing the Shadow Omega Destroyers

None so far, but I think that we could use events for that.

or the Drakh Controlled Centauri vessels?

Haven't thought on that... interesting

 

[Ajidica]

On the subject of the Drakh Centauri vessels and the Shadow Omegas:
An idea I have is to have a special 'First Ones Inspired Unit' for the 4 key races and others as applicable. EA would get the Shadow Omega, Minbari would get early use of the White Star, Centauri would get the Drakh vessels, and Narn would get a a lore-accurate version of the Statue of Zeus (raises enemy war weariness) to show their resistance to centari occupation. It could also add alot of unhappiness when under Centauri control too. The other races could get something that represents the Shadow influence just before the League collapsed.

I finished up the series (the end of season 5 was a let-down, it draged out too long). But I have few lore questions but I'm spoilering them.

Spoiler :

1. Does Londo ever get freed from his Keeper?
2. In the episode Babylon Squared, when Sheriden and Delenn are in the future on Centauri prime, Delenn asks about their son. I gather that he gets a keeper on him from the jar Londo gave Sheriden, but does he get freed from it?
3. In that future, Centauri Prime is in flames, but the ISA had attacked them in the past. Is that a new attack or the fusion bombs the Drakh mentioned? If it is the fusion bombs, that meant he disobeyed the Drakh, but he still had his keeper which kept him from doing that. Am I overthinking it?
4. This is more of a technical question, but do you know of any reason why the only Centauri ships seen in the season 5 battles are Vorchans, despite the cruisers being very common back in the Narn-Centari War? I remember at least two of them attacking B5 and a bunch more bombaring Narn.

 

[Tssha]

Spoiler :

1. Does Londo ever get freed from his Keeper?

Only in death. Watch the episode with Babylon 4 again when Sheridan flashes forward.

2. In the episode Babylon Squared, when Sheridan and Delenn are in the future on Centauri prime, Delenn asks about their son. I gather that he gets a keeper on him from the jar Londo gave Sheridan, but does he get freed from it?

No idea, that was never covered in the series. There are references to the incident involving their son...

...and that's it. Unless it's covered outside of the series and movies, it's unknown.

3. In that future, Centauri Prime is in flames, but the ISA had attacked them in the past. Is that a new attack or the fusion bombs the Drakh mentioned? If it is the fusion bombs, that meant he disobeyed the Drakh, but he still had his keeper which kept him from doing that. Am I overthinking it?

You're probably overthinking it. Without assistance from the Interstellar Alliance, they would have had to rebuild the entire planetary infrastructure with whatever bits of it weren't blasted. Years on, it'd probably still look a little ruined, especially as the Drakh are looking to recreate post-WWI Germany on Centauri Prime (full of resentment, bent on Revanchism and willing to take on the galaxy). Who knows, maybe it's an indication of civil disturbance?

4. This is more of a technical question, but do you know of any reason why the only Centauri ships seen in the season 5 battles are Vorchans, despite the cruisers being very common back in the Narn-Centari War? I remember at least two of them attacking B5 and a bunch more bombaring Narn.

No idea. They've might've built them after the Narn-Centauri war though...but I have no idea if that's it or not. Probably not.

Don't the Narns get a cool ship too?

 

[Premier Valle]

On the subject of the Drakh Centauri vessels and the Shadow Omegas:
An idea I have is to have a special 'First Ones Inspired Unit' for the 4 key races and others as applicable. EA would get the Shadow Omega, Minbari would get early use of the White Star, Centauri would get the Drakh vessels, and Narn would get a a lore-accurate version of the Statue of Zeus (raises enemy war weariness) to show their resistance to centari occupation. It could also add alot of unhappiness when under Centauri control too. The other races could get something that represents the Shadow influence just before the League collapsed.

Yes, that could be like UU and UB, but we haven't talked about such possibility. Interesting, what does everyone think of this?. I like the idea, it need refinement of course, and I think we should leave it for a later stage on the mod development.

Spoiler WARNING!

Spoiler :

I finished up the series (the end of season 5 was a let-down, it draged out too long). But I have few lore questions but I'm spoilering them.
1. Does Londo ever get freed from his Keeper?
Nope, remember G'Kar and Londo kill each other?, just after Londo frees Delenn and Sheridan (he is very drunk so his keeper is sleeping), the keeper awakens.
2. In the episode Babylon Squared, when Sheriden and Delenn are in the future on Centauri prime, Delenn asks about their son. I gather that he gets a keeper on him from the jar Londo gave Sheriden, but does he get freed from it?
I'm not even sure that the keeper gets to David (their son).
3. In that future, Centauri Prime is in flames, but the ISA had attacked them in the past. Is that a new attack or the fusion bombs the Drakh mentioned? If it is the fusion bombs, that meant he disobeyed the Drakh, but he still had his keeper which kept him from doing that. Am I overthinking it?
What I understand is that the Drakh have consumed most of Centauri Prime's resources In rebuilding their fleet, creating a colony for the Drakh and so on, so, what you see there is the very same bombardment the Narn/Drazi made. (after all a fusion bomb is likely to also have destroyed the Royal Palace.
4. This is more of a technical question, but do you know of any reason why the only Centauri ships seen in the season 5 battles are Vorchans, despite the cruisers being very common back in the Narn-Centari War? I remember at least two of them attacking B5 and a bunch more bombaring Narn.
The Primus is an old ship, and is getting replaced by the Vorchans, also, I'm sure the Drakh found better to "control" such ships.

 

[Ajidica]

Thanks for the lore info.

 

[PsiCorps]

In the episode Babylon Squared, when Sheriden and Delenn are in the future on Centauri prime, Delenn asks about their son. I gather that he gets a keeper on him from the jar Londo gave Sheriden, but does he get freed from it?

This is also covered in one of the books from the Legion of Fire trilogy, unfortunately i'm not sure which one of the 3 it is. Whichever one it is the three books are good for some more background on the Centauri, if you're interested that is.

 

[Lord_Zath]

just started playing this mod. pretty cool. A suggestion for credit chit quote - "Hey, someone's gonna have to pay for that drink!" - Bartender to Garibaldi.

 

[Premier Valle]

just started playing this mod. pretty cool. A suggestion for credit chit quote - "Hey, someone's gonna have to pay for that drink!" - Bartender to Garibaldi.

- you remembered me of some episode.

you've got it!

 

[Premier Valle]

Hello everyone!,

I have updated the Ship table to include the latest Dilgar ships, a little bit modified from the first version:

Any comment before I start modeling the Dilgar ships?

Also, in order to add more variants of the PDS, I have designed/modeled another satellite, the ODSAT (Orbital Defense SATellite) presented here is the early PDS, using kinetic weaponry.
It has a poly count of 700, uses the carrier animation, and since it is a generic satellite it is teamcolored.

Civilopedia:

Combat:

PS I already have the designs for the Mid and Late generic PDSs.

 

[PsiCorps]

Any comment before I start modeling the Dilgar ships?

None at all except that i'll be doing some work now on adding the new unit to the current version and preparing it for the later model whilst moving the curent PDS into the middle slot.

 

[Ajidica]

Very nice. I think I will be taking it.

 

[PsiCorps]

ODSAT has been added as has the Deveskar. I still cannot get the AI to build any form of ODS or PDS. Maybe we need to add something to the DLL?

 

[Ajidica]

Actualy, if you are going off of FF+ it is because it isn't defined in python. Just rename ODS or PDS to the default 'Planetary Defense Ships' unitclass and the python will then cause the AI to build it. FF+ has hacked into the AI with python so it can make some messy circumstances.

Good luck with the Dilgar ships. I will probably end up using them as the Peacekeeper ships.

 

[God-Emperor]

That's not really the case. The only ships that the FF+ Python AI will cause to be produced are construction ships, squadrons, and perhaps the occasional carrier. All of the rest is done entirely by the DLL.

The Python AI code interferes with buildings somewhat more than it does with units, although a lot of that is still controlled by the DLL. It can also do a few other things not involving what cities are doing, like forcing a construction ship to go build a starbase.

It's been a long time since I glanced through how the DLL decides what to build so I don't really remember how it works (and never knew the details) but my general impression is that Civ doesn't seem to like producing units that are immobile very much, particularly if their base strength (or is it the iPower rating?) is not very high. Also the weight that it gives for having a large defensive bonus doesn't seem to be very high, if anything at all. The only unit of DOMAIN_IMMOBILE that is in regular BtS is the ICBM, and it is probably a special case since it has an iNukeRange value that is not -1. in FF+ only the 3 levels of starbase and the sensor station are DOMAIN_IMMOBILE and none of them is built by "cities", they are only produced by construction ships via special Python AI code. Units that are marked as defensive only might also have a lower production priority. (I don't remember ihow the unit's iPower rating is involved in the DLL's decision, or even if it is. In v1.14 the planetary defense satellites have it set to 4 which matches their iCombat value.) Anyhow, you could try setting the unit's iAIWeight to something other than 0, like perhaps something in the 5 to 10 range, and see how much that helps the situation. If it still doesn't build them, try something higher.

Something I just noticed in CIV4UnitInfos.xml from Babylon 5 V1.14: the Starbase I unit appears twice, with slightly different characteristics. Once starting on line 410, the other starting on line 31963. Both are UNITCLASS_STARBASE_I and UNIT_STARBASE_I.

 

[PsiCorps]

Actualy, if you are going off of FF+ it is because it isn't defined in python. Just rename ODS or PDS to the default 'Planetary Defense Ships' unitclass and the python will then cause the AI to build it. FF+ has hacked into the AI with python so it can make some messy circumstances.

It's been a long time since I glanced through how the DLL decides what to build so I don't really remember how it works (and never knew the details) but my general impression is that Civ doesn't seem to like producing units that are immobile very much, particularly if their base strength (or is it the iPower rating?) is not very high. Also the weight that it gives for having a large defensive bonus doesn't seem to be very high, if anything at all. The only unit of DOMAIN_IMMOBILE that is in regular BtS is the ICBM, and it is probably a special case since it has an iNukeRange value that is not -1. in FF+ only the 3 levels of starbase and the sensor station are DOMAIN_IMMOBILE and none of them is built by "cities", they are only produced by construction ships via special Python AI code. Units that are marked as defensive only might also have a lower production priority. (I don't remember ihow the unit's iPower rating is involved in the DLL's decision, or even if it is. In v1.14 the planetary defense satellites have it set to 4 which matches their iCombat value.) Anyhow, you could try setting the unit's iAIWeight to something other than 0, like perhaps something in the 5 to 10 range, and see how much that helps the situation. If it still doesn't build them, try something higher.

Thanks to you both for the info. I've reset the unit back to UNIT_PLANETARY_DEFENSE_I & II and will play test it now. It already has an AI weight of 10 so i hope that will help. If it still doesn't build them i'll try changing the iPower number and see what that does.

Something I just noticed in CIV4UnitInfos.xml from Babylon 5 V1.14: the Starbase I unit appears twice, with slightly different characteristics. Once starting on line 410, the other starting on line 31963. Both are UNITCLASS_STARBASE_I and UNIT_STARBASE_I.

Good spot, thanks, i'll remove the second one. (if i haven't already)

 

[PsiCorps]

I've reset the unit back to UNIT_PLANETARY_DEFENSE_I & II

OK, i've playtested this and i now get a whole load of ODSAT's to build, one for each civ present in the game being played. Screen shots attached of top and bottom sections of the build options. Any ideas on how to stop this happening?

Thanks in advance