[v0.43]Babylon 5 - Sins of the Younger Races {Diplomacy1.34} UPDATE 08.12.2012

Babylon 5 mod effort for Sins

By TobiWahn_Kenobi on August 17, 2009 4:40:02 AM from

Sins of a Solar Empire Forums

TobiWahn_Ke...

Join Date 08/2008

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This is the story of the last of the Babylon 5 mod-efforts. It's goal, to prevent another failure, by creating a place to solve our problems collaboratively. Its a port of call, home away from home, for modelers, texturers, programmers and sound engineers.

Babylon 5 - Sins of the Younger Races

Disclaimer:
The authors are not responsible for any damage that may arise from using this mod. This mod may not be sold under any circumstances. It may be downloaded, bundled with other mods as long as it does not violate the laws of the state/country you live in and this disclaimer is distributed with it. For other used please contact me personally.

Thanks to the TEAM:
2D Artist: SteinerX, Tobias Liebhart (TobiWahn_Kenobi)
Coders: Davroth, EvilTesla-RG, zRazor (Ronie Albesa), Zvezdochets, Rodney Jenkings (HotRod), Rob Cummings (NewHorizons), Tobias Liebhart
Modelers: Fileosoft, Koobalt, Timmaigh, zRazor (Ronie Albesa), Stefan May, Zvezdochets, Tobias Liebhart
Musician: Pauli Valkeejärvi (Hawkwall)
Research: Rodney Jenkins, Darvroth
PR: SteinerX
Texturers: SteinerX, TFL_BigBangTheory, Timmaigh, ZombiesRus5, Tobias Liebhart
Bughunters: Peter1x9, ZombiesRus5, Darvroth, Rob Cummings
Support: Lavo_2, boshimi336

And to
MysticAngel for the Automated Fighter docking ability

Sounds provided by: Zvezdochets

And thanks to all those modelers whose work is a inspiration and a template for creating ingame assets

If I forgot anyone, please contact me so I can give proper credit. (There seem to be so many decent people involved at the moment)

Update 0.431 HotFix (Requires 0.43)

https://mega.co.nz/#!sFRnDZCa!Asl6qQ3N-KkqlKnxnq541XWsbARTbGMhLjX3lcK1vdw

http://www.mediafire.com/?bvvbotkoao86uic

http://www.gamefront.com/files/22724745/sotyr_0_431_Update_rar

Release 0.43 Full

https://mega.co.nz/#!EIgQVLIR!EwaLA3pCL2z5xAd5fgBmqjHJPWwktwVP5jb5pWee5dM

http://www.gamefront.com/files/22720978/sotyr_0.43_Full.rar

http://www.mediafire.com/file/8djsoefyxvv7fj9/sotyr_0.43_Full.rar

http://www.filedropper.com/sotyr043full

Put contents into the gameInfo directory

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

put the folder "b5-sotyr"

using winxp
C:\Documents and Settings\'user name'\Local Settings\Application Data\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods-Diplomacy v1.34

using vista/windows 7
C:\Users\'username'\AppData\Local\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire\Mods-Diplomacy v1.34

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

PreAlpha 0.43 for Sins Diplomacy 1.34

Contents:

Races:
    Minbari
    EA
    Narn
    Centauri
    Shadows
    Vorlon

Models:

   General:
       Jumpgate

   Minbari:
       Tinashi
       Nial (Tishat)
       Flyer
       Sharlin (Sharkaan, Sharoos)
       Neroon

   Earth Alliance:
       Avenger Carrier
       Artemis Frigate
       Hermes Transport
       Omega Destroyer
       Hyperion
       Sagittarius Cruiser
       Starfury Aurora
       Victory Destroyer
       EA Explorer
       Apollo
       Starfury Badger *NEW*
       NOVA Dreadnought *NEW*
       Global Orbital Defense *NEW*
       Poseidon Super Carrier *NEW*

   Shadows:
       Ancient Battlecrab
       DeathCloud
       Scout *NEW*
       Young Battlecrab (smaller) *NEW*
       Fighter *NEW*
       Carrier *NEW*

   Narn:
       G'Quan
       BinTak
       Ka'Toc
       Dag'Kar
       Frazi
       Gorith

   Centauri:
       Vorchan
       Centurion
       Liati

   Vorlon:
       Heavy Cruiser
       Light Cruiser


Abilities:
    Many added

Starbases:
    Basic Starbases for younger Races ( Military, Jumpgate )
    Jumpgates for EA, Narn, Centauri and Minbari

Research:
    EA
    Centauri
    Minbari
    Narn
    Vorlon
    Shadow

GUI:
    Fonts
    Intro Music
    Loadscreens
    Intro Videos
    Icons

Music:
    Battle music 1, 2
       & 3 *NEW*
    Quiet music 1, 2, 4, 5

Sounds:
   Vorchan Ion cannon

SOTYR manual

If anyone wants to contribute to this mod, please contact me. Any models, sounds, music, textures, abilities and so on are welcomed. I will however keep control of the stats (with input from the most active members/posters).

Home
https://bitbucket.org/TobiWahn_Kenobi/sotyr/wiki/Home

Screenshots
https://bitbucket.org/TobiWahn_Kenobi/sotyr/wiki/Home#!screenshots

Bug reporting over here (you need to be a member of Origo and the team, if you want to do this, please contact me)
https://bitbucket.org/TobiWahn_Kenobi/sotyr/issues?status=new&status=open

Old Blog with screenshots and infos maintained by SteinerX can be found here (*OUT OF DATE*)
http://babylon5ins.blogspot.com/

Yours TobiWahn_Kenobi

OK, I've had a bit of play around and I think I'm getting a grasp of the entity files.

What stumped me at first is that B5SotYR appears to be using the PlanetBonus*.entity files from Sins itself - I'd assumed all entities were self contained in the b5-sotyr directory.

After grabbing the decompiled reference files I can now see how things are implemented.

So an initial stab at the Brivari Distillery planet bonus would be to add the line

entityName "PlanetBonusBrivariDistillery.entity"

to b5-sotyr/entity.manifest and increment the entityNameCount value.

Then drop the file PlanetBonusBrivariDistillery.entity into the b5-sotyr/GameInfo directory, contents of which look something like

TXT
entityType "PlanetBonus"
minUpgradeLevelNeeded 0
maxUpgradeLevelNeeded 1
nameStringID "IDS_PLANETBONUS_BRIVARIDISTILLERY_NAME"
descStringID "IDS_PLANETBONUS_BRIVARIDISTILLERY_DESC"
floatBonus:AdditiveCultureSpreadPerc 0.000000
floatBonus:AdditivePopulation 0.000000
floatBonus:AdditivePlanetHealth 0.000000
floatBonus:AdditiveSlotsCivilian 0.000000
floatBonus:AdditiveSlotsTactical 0.000000
floatBonus:AdditiveTaxIncome 0.000000
floatBonus:AdditiveTradeIncomePerc 0.200000
floatBonus:MetalIncomePerc 0.000000
floatBonus:CrystalIncomePerc 0.000000
floatBonus:GravityWellRadiusPerc 0.000000
floatBonus:ModuleBuildCostPerc 0.000000
floatBonus:ModuleBuildRatePerc -0.350000
floatBonus:PlanetUpgradeBuildCostPerc 0.000000
floatBonus:PlanetUpgradeBuildRatePerc 0.000000
floatBonus:PopulationGrowthPerc 0.000000
intBonus:ModuleConstructors 0
intBonus:SpacePonies 0
hudIcon "HUDICON_PLANETBONUS_PENALCOLONY"
smallHudIcon "HUDICON_PLANETBONUS_PENALCOLONY"
infoCardIcon "HUDICON_PLANETBONUS_PENALCOLONY"

Next apply the bonus to the planet type(s) by adding

bonus "PlanetBonusBrivariDistillery"

to the appropriate Planet*.entity file, in this case b5-sotyr/PlanetTerran.entity and then increment the possibleRandomPlanetBonusesCount value.

Finally add

StringInfo
      ID "IDS_PLANETBONUS_BRIVARIDISTILLERY_NAME"
      Value "Brivari Distillery"
StringInfo
      ID "IDS_PLANETBONUS_BRIVARIDISTILLERY_DESC"
      Value "A distillery that uses traditional techniques for producing some of the finest Brivari in the quadrant"

to b5-sotyr/String/English.str and increment the NumStrings value by two.

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TobiWahn,

Down loaded and installed. Looks nice but I'll have to spend some time playing with it. I have a series of out of town visitors this summer that will consume much of my available bandwidth os my contribution will slow for a while but who knows Eureka moments are still possible.

NewHorizons,

I responded to your Centauri diplomacy post @bitbucket and it might be feasible if a bit convoluted.

Darvroth

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NewHorizons

Sounds very good. Will have a look at it tomorrow (hopefully, family duties need to be taken care of first)

Davroth

Yes, just have a bit of playing time with it now and then. FileMaker needs some getting used to but it should help you design abilities/Buffs from ground up.

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Darvroth,

What about envoy abilities?

Certain frigates in the Sacrifice of Angels mod have race specific (eg anti-Borg) capabilities.

Could an envoy have an ability to improves relations with a specific faction?

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That's dependent on some entity file trickery. I haven't looked at their files, but best guess says their method targets only ships and races that have the IsPsi line.

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Quoting SpardaSon21,

reply 3181

That's dependent on some entity file trickery. I haven't looked at their files, but best guess says their method targets only ships and races that have the IsPsi line.

Very likely. Though as we have no IsPhase and IsTech descriptors (after begging the devs many times by many people to have such a distinction) we are very limited on how to use this. It's a shame that abilities cannot target specific races.

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Having played a bit with Rebellion ther are some obvious adjustments once 0.43 is out and the Rebellion. I'm not sure every race will have a corvette or even should. Several of the existing frigate types would be improved as a corvette. Titan is easy for every race. I've not looked much past that but I'm sure there are lots of gems.

Darvroth

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Myrmidon is the perfect example of a corvette. The others have such a thing as well I think.

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Just gave the new planet bonuses a test and they seem to be OK, so far I've found the G'Quan Eth plantation, still haven't found the Brivari distillery yet.

BTW: The 5th ability of the Neroon Carrier War Cruiser has a "String not found".

Looking at the entity files this is for "Weapon Cooling", the end of AbilityWeaponCooling.entity has no string IDs:

... ...

ignoreNonCombatShipsForAutoCastTarget TRUE
onlyAutoCastWhenDamageTakenExceedsPerc 0.000000
useCostType "Passive"
researchPrerequisites
NumResearchPrerequisites 0
nameStringID ""
descStringID ""
hudIcon ""
smallHudIcon ""
infoCardIcon ""

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Quoting NewHorizons,

reply 3185

Just gave the new planet bonuses a test and they seem to be OK, so far I've found the G'Quan Eth plantation, still haven't found the Brivari distillery yet.

Cool!

Quoting NewHorizons,

reply 3185

BTW: The 5th ability of the Neroon Carrier War Cruiser has a "String not found".

Looking at the entity files this is for "Weapon Cooling", the end of AbilityWeaponCooling.entity has no string IDs:

This will all be rectified once I addded the abilities do my DatabaseEditor. But you could file a Issue with BitBucket

I'm in a bit of a stress lately (many birthdays, gf, planning holidays, job, doing work for friends) so it may still take a little while till the next release, sorry.

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Quoting TobiWahn_Kenobi,

reply 3186

could file a Issue with BitBucket

Done.

Just found some Na'Ka'Leen Feeders - Euurrrrgh!! Hideous creatures, hideous.

However, it looks like I've got the wrong bonus factors in the entity file, I'll upload a fix to BitBucket shortly.

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Quoting NewHorizons,

reply 3187

Just found some Na'Ka'Leen Feeders - Euurrrrgh!! Hideous creatures, hideous.

wonderful. I'll better stay in my quarters then

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NewHorizons, Woot!

My out of town visitors arrived today so productivity is nearing a cliff...

Darvroth

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You guys are just awesome!!!!! Keep up the great work!! I wish there was something I could do to help you guys, but i have no skill in modding. Good luck gentlemen.

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Quoting crazyninja1313,

reply 3190

I wish there was something I could do to help you guys, but i have no skill in modding.

Can you do graphics? Abstract ones for Research items?

or sounds?

We have use for many a thing

PS.: Thanks for the flowers

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Quoting TobiWahn_Kenobi,

reply 3191

or sounds?

What is the legality of using sounds from the series?

Eg: http://b5.cs.uwyo.edu/bab5/ (from http://www.midwinter.com/lurk/resources/online.html)

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Quoting NewHorizons,

reply 3192

What is the legality of using sounds from the series?

Sadly, don't think we can claim fair use. While there is place holder and some original work. TobiWahn has stated the final product will only have original though themed music. Sounds from SoaSE are different as it is a mod and fair use applies there.

Darvroth

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Carrier cruisers in B5SotYR are respectable combat vessels - strong hull & a decent amount of weaponry with abilities that are suited to being at the heart of an attacking fleet, eg Embolden.

Would it be worth setting them to auto-attack by default?

They would be more likely to move with the fleet and be able to use their abilities, instead of sitting at the edge of a grav well out of harm's way.

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NewHorizons,

It depends. Each entity file will identify the cruiser/frigate role that ship is assigned and yes there are some less than optimal assignments with 0.42. Some adjustments are included in 0.43 (the master at bitbucket will have any adjustments to date). Flag settings also can make a big impact on ship performance when under AI control. Best advice and it is a bit time consuming is to review the entity files of the ships that are performing poorly in combat, test their performance with either different flag settings or new ship roles. Then when happy with the result, create a balance report at bitbucket with specific recomendations. All the Capital ships and many others already have entries. We found it easier in many instances to track completion by ship.

Darvroth

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Quoting Darvroth,

reply 3193

Quoting NewHorizons,
reply 3192
What is the legality of using sounds from the series?

Sadly, don't think we can claim fair use. While there is place holder and some original work. TobiWahn has stated the final product will only have original though themed music. Sounds from SoaSE are different as it is a mod and fair use applies there.

Darvroth

I concur. On the website it reads

All sounds files contained within the Down Below Sound Archive For Babylon 5 are Copyright Sci-Fi, TNT, PTEN, Warner Brothers, & Babylonian Productions, Inc.

Clearly there is nowhere a disclaimer giving us a license to use the sounds in our product. Sorry. At the moment the only sounds in the mod that come from the original are the shadow sound and the ion cannon. And the music from the main theme 5th episode. But we need to change them all for the 1.0 release as we could get legal notice because of this (though unlikely)

Quoting NewHorizons,

reply 3194

Carrier cruisers in B5SotYR are respectable combat vessels - strong hull & a decent amount of weaponry with abilities that are suited to being at the heart of an attacking fleet, eg Embolden.

Would it be worth setting them to auto-attack by default?

They would be more likely to move with the fleet and be able to use their abilities, instead of sitting at the edge of a grav well out of harm's way.

Whatever testing results in. But it depends on the individual ship.

Quoting Darvroth,

reply 3195

NewHorizons,

It depends. Each entity file will identify the cruiser/frigate role that ship is assigned and yes there are some less than optimal assignments with 0.42. Some adjustments are included in 0.43 (the master at bitbucket will have any adjustments to date). Flag settings also can make a big impact on ship performance when under AI control. Best advice and it is a bit time consuming is to review the entity files of the ships that are performing poorly in combat, test their performance with either different flag settings or new ship roles. Then when happy with the result, create a balance report at bitbucket with specific recomendations. All the Capital ships and many others already have entries. We found it easier in many instances to track completion by ship.

Darvroth

Agreed. Also the master on bitbucket is not completely up to date. I've adjusted almost all of the cost parameters of all ships (mostly down) and will notify you once BitBucket is updated.

Thanks to you all and hope you had a nice weekend

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Quoting Darvroth,

reply 3111

I'm looking for possible ideas to use as ship or structure abilities for the 6 major races.
Darvroth

Hyperion cruiser, currently only has the jump engine ability, how about these

1) Lay mines - drops 10 nuclear mines

2) Send distress signal - which acts like the the Radiance's taunt ability

With those two you might be able to use Sheridan style tactics to kill a Sharlin, although you'd have to use the Hyperion's superior acceleration & speed to keep out of range of the former.

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NewHorizons,

Hyperion was actually the first ship I tackled and if TobiWahn has accepted them all, that one at least is done. 0.43 actually has a lot of new content. I have not touched the Narn and only lightly the Minbari and Centauri. The issues tab at Bitbucket for each ship is reasonably close to what abilities have been created for each ship. We have not touched structural abilities other than what is in the tech tree. That said there are several techs that do not work as advertised as the ability the tech references hasn't been built yet and it has not been properly documented and to my thinking warrants a bug report where found.

Darvroth

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Guess who watched In the Beginning last night? Thoroughly enjoyed it, I might dust off the series DVDs.

I saw the bug report for the Hyperion, but it looked a bit blank.

Quoting Darvroth,

reply 3198

That said there are several techs that do not work as advertised as the ability the tech references hasn't been built yet

I'm guessing things like Ranger Espionage etc.

Quoting Darvroth,

reply 3198

...I have not touched the Narn...

Description strings for G'Quan & Dag'Kar mention energy mines, but how are these implemented in B5SotYR?

I couldn't match them to a weapon type, perhaps a potential ability?

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Guess who watched In the Beginning last night? Thoroughly enjoyed it, I might dust off the series DVDs.

I saw the bug report for the Hyperion, but it looked a bit blank.

Quoting Darvroth,

reply 3198

That said there are several techs that do not work as advertised as the ability the tech references hasn't been built yet

I'm guessing things like Ranger Espionage etc.

Quoting Darvroth,

reply 3198

...I have not touched the Narn...

Description strings for G'Quan & Dag'Kar mention energy mines, but how are these implemented in B5SotYR?

I couldn't match them to a weapon type, perhaps a potential ability?

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NewHorizons,

Updated Hyperion issues tab...I thought I had three working abilities but my files showed only 2. I'll need to check my e-mail with TobiWahn to see if I forwarded a third.

Not sure who built the Energy Mine abilities, but they are nice, there are several distinct abilities lumped under that heading.

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[v0.43]Babylon 5 - Sins of the Younger Races {Diplomacy1.34} *UPDATE 08.12.2012*

Babylon 5 mod effort for Sins

TobiWahn_Ke...

All sounds files contained within the Down Below Sound Archive For Babylon 5 are Copyright Sci-Fi, TNT, PTEN, Warner Brothers, & Babylonian Productions, Inc.

[v0.43]Babylon 5 - Sins of the Younger Races {Diplomacy1.34} UPDATE 08.12.2012