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Babylon 5 Mod Ideas

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Babylon 5 Mod Ideas

from Sins Forums
So since it should be inevitable for a B5 mod to get made, i figure it couldn't hurt to talk some about it, and perhaps maybe plan and get a team going for it.

Major Major Questions...

1. How many playable races to attempt, and which ones?

2. How many ships per faction, should ship roles/designs and numbers be based off the existing Sins races or not care?

3. Which general era of ships to use for the Earth Alliance?

4. Should capital ship mechanics remain the same? IE should the current game mechanics be kept in more or less the same condition?

My personal ideas is that the general game should play about the same, but that many ships should be condensed into one for some races, or expanded for others, notably I am in favor of maintaining only 3 Capital ship choices, as I think finding 5 for each major race would be quickly silly.

I would say for the beggining 3 balanced major races would be best, in general I view the technical/qualitative tiers being as such

Lowest: League Worlds, Early EA, Dilgar
Medium: EA, Centauri, Narn
High: Minbari, Drahk
Godish: Shadows, Vorlons, Additional Ancients

The mod would preferably come with several maps, one of which would represent the B5 universe just before the shadow war, it would be nice if a timer was included so that perhaps 3 hours into the game 2 special pirate worlds (the Shadows and the Vorlons) launch massive and mean pirate strikes... regular Raider Pirates would otherwise conduct themselves normally.

Other special maps/scenarios: Dilgar EA war... Earth Minbari War, and Narn Centauri War (The Shadows should/could be present here as well.)

While some races would be playable in these scenarios, for example in the Earth-Dilgar war you could play these or the League worlds, as the Early EA faction would be balanced with them; but the Earth Minbari War should be a 2V1, with the Minbari being powerful enough to take on two players.

This means that in the generic game, the balanced races would be EA, Narn and Centauri. The Minbari, Drahk and League worlds would all be special militia or pirate forces, we could easily design new planets that corresponded to these races and would spawn with special militia units, thus you wouldn't have Minbar being guarded by Raiders or Drazi.

Ship wise, the most important is obviously the Capitals- My personal choices for the 3 main powers are as such, with the TEC similar ship noted.

EA: Omega Destroyer (Kol) Posideon Super Carrier (Sova) Nova Dreadnought (Marza)

Narn: Bin`Tak Dreadnought (Kol) G`Quan Heavy Cruiser (Dunov) (Third????)

Centauri: Primus BattleCruiser (Dunov?) Octurion Battlship (Kol) Balvarin Carrier (Akkan?)



Additional Scenarios: Psi Corp Rebellion, EA Civil War, Mars Rebellion, The Centauri-League War (with Drahk as Pirates?) The list goes on and on.

Oh and for the EA, I would use Hyperions as the basic combat unit, to give fans an iconic mainstay for their fleets, as opposed to the too awesome for Frigate Omega, and the lesser known Olympus, Tethys, Saggitarius, or Oracle... (or the others   )
modding
481,786 views 311 replies
Reply #151 from Sins Forums Top
I showed recently Bab 5 and i am sure that the position of the EA in the serie is not on technologie strength but on the capacity to unite (?) all race on the same idea.
In the serie centaury decimates narn with the shadow' help.

For equilibrate the all races maybe it's possible to increase the ship cost for the strong races. For exemple: 1 ship shadow or vorlon cost 2 ship minbari or 5 ship league ...
Reply #152 from Sins Forums Top
Towards the end of the series, Earth was making vast strides technologically. The Warlock-class, while using technology from "off-world" 'the grav drive' -- was largely an Earth driven project.

Of all the races in the show, the only one we "see" evolve is the Earth Alliance. The Minbari, Centauri and Narn don't seem to change much of their ships, or tech...depends on what you want to use as canon.

As long as my Olympus is in there, the better! I still get goosey when I watch "In the Beginning" and the seen when one Olympus + a squadron charge against a Minbari Task Force.

Regardless, this amount of B5 fans = good news for any mod!

edit: grammar clean up
Fences - Organize your desktop icons today!
Reply #153 from Sins Forums Top
'B5: The Lost Tales' talks about the future Centauri giving Earth force a bit of a pasting, I think in the case of the Centauri they lacked the political will for a large war machine capacity rather than technology.
Reply #154 from Sins Forums Top
Hey guys, new poster here. Been watching this game out of the corner of my eyes for a year or so now, and jsut recently my head has been pulled this way by a HUGE gravity well, and now I'm practically dancing on the edge of my seat waiting for Tuesday to roll around.

Anyway, the reason I created this was mainly to offer up any help for this project that I can. I know next to nothing of coding/modding/etc, but am willing to learn if someone will point me in the right direction for beginner stuff.

Also, to quote and correct CCtroma, there was a point in the show where B5 took out a Centauri cruiser, with it's upgraded defense system and the Starfuries, admitedly it's a full station vs one cruiser, but still. They may be behind the Centauri, but not by far. At least until S5 where the Centauri started using Shadow tech.

I, being a dedicated B5 fan since the show released, have all 5 seasons, and a few of the movies, so tend to consider myself if not an expert, at least well versed in B5 lore, so could also contribute that way... Anyway, pm me or email me at [email protected] for tips/info on how I can help.
Reply #155 from Sins Forums Top

'B5: The Lost Tales' talks about the future Centauri giving Earth force a bit of a pasting, I think in the case of the Centauri they lacked the political will for a large war machine capacity rather than technology.
End of quote


Either that, or it was a surprise attack. (Oh yeah, it was!)
Reply #156 from Sins Forums Top
Well like they say about technology, EA could damage/destroy Minbari ships, that wasn't the issue - it was the jamming/stealth problems.

...seems like the only hard ships to "kill" were Shadow/Vorlon ones. Even the White Star, if taking a direct hit from an Omega would turn into bits.

So balance for this will be...interesting.
Reply #157 from Sins Forums Top
hmmm...considering one of the posts stated above, how overpowered shadow and vorlon ships were (they are millions of years old and immortal, but not invincible).I dont think they should be playble (like click and point), but should function as Event OR player doing some kind of mission through out the game(gather points, credits, whatever now...) so you can hire them (I bet shadows) to attack place of your choosing? Just like it was in the show i think. But it should be quite expensive...maybe giving up some of your space, etc? If you choose to be *helped* by shadows, this could/should get Vorlon attention and their Planet Killer :D ....holy crusade to cleanse galaxy of shadow filth and unfortunatly for those who get in their way :p

They could be played i guess, but should be seperate scenario...Once you make Vorlons and shadows playble, they loose some appeal to me somehow, they just arnt so ancient and mystirous as they should be. One will try to balance them and that is just wrong. They were not outgunned or driven by force from galaxy...Vorlons and shadows were capable to whipe out all sentient races exept ancient ones, they were outwitted. Its just how i feel about it :) On other hand, choosing to affiliate with either faction you could get eventually some of their ships, getting 1-2 shadow crab or vorlon battle cruisers is nothing more than EPIC capital ships in your fleet arsenal...

I guess there are quite some playble scenarios to be played out...
Reply #158 from Sins Forums Top
Need to play SoaSE for a bit and wait for the forge tools, its difficult to 2nd guess at this stage what scenarios are going to be practical.
Reply #159 from Sins Forums Top
Scenarios on side or scrpting, having just B5 ships firing on eachother is just crazy :)
Reply #160 from Sins Forums Top
I've started making a map based on Mongoos'es map and what the Freespace 22 modders came up with
Reply #161 from Sins Forums Top
SERIOUSLY THERE HAS TO BE A b5 MOD!
The possibility of a B5 mod was the reason i got the game.

take a look at REV5's B5 mod for gal civ, he did a pretty good job.

The Minbari were always more powerful than the other lesser races.

as many ships as possible. (i like the variation. Sins has hecka few ships.)

Two distinct time periods is good.

and as was mentioned earlyer, each races ships had significant advantages/disadvantages.
EA ships easy to build, but less powerful. (at least until Sheridan took over.)
Centauri ships are fast, but can only fire forwards.
narn ships have wide firing arcs, and are arder to destroy, but have much slower movement.
ECT. ECT. ECT.

so yeah.

EDIT:
and don't worry so much about balance!
the shadows and the vorlons ARE unbalanced, and i personally would love to kick some but with a super powerful shadow fleet.

remember some races were more powerful, that's (in my opinion), how it should be in the mod as well.
Reply #162 from Sins Forums Top
SERIOUSLY THERE HAS TO BE A b5 MOD!
The possibility of a B5 mod was the reason i got the game.

End of quote


There will be. A lot of the problem right now is that there are a number of us waiting for the forge tools to become available, to see what kind of time and effort is really going to be involved. But, more than that, I think theres a serious need for 3d artists. I can convert all of B5A2's old models and textures over to SoaSE, though it would take a large chunk of time to do this, as all the original models have been lost (They're all in Armada 2s model format, .sod, which CAN be converted back to 3ds, just...takes forever). The problem there, is the files are built for a game that came out 5 years ago, and definitely look the part. Moreover, I'm not that strong a coder. I've chatted to TFLBigBang a wee bit, but theres been no clear leader to step forward yet.

Just a few of the issues facing us, right now.

It'll happen. This game is attracting a lot of attention from the mainstream, which means the modders will come.

edit - and nevermind that the old modellers who made B5A2s art files have all disappeared off the map.
Reply #163 from Sins Forums Top
Anyone who is interested in contributing to SoaSE mods would do well to check out SoftImage XSI, in particular:

- Mesh Imports
- UV Mapping
- Texturing
- Lighting

+ using Adobe Photoshop with the Nvidia DDS plugin.

With a little research it seems as though there are many scifi-meshes out there so you shouldn't have to build everything from scratch if you get permission or follow the authors conditions for it use.

Players that have spent many hours in SoaSE now and over the next few weeks should be able to spot ideas that can be re-used or improved on for a mod. These types of examples are more valuable than wish lists. A good example on B5 for you to muse over is 'how could the B5 jumpgates be made to work?'

Reply #164 from Sins Forums Top
Well apparently several students from a graphic arts college will be joining the community soon. From what I understand some of them (if not all of them) use SI and or 3dSM. Lets hope they are B5 fans.
Reply #165 from Sins Forums Top
www.b5mods.com is homeworld B5 mod. Im not a modder but i love mods. Maybe its possible to get stuff from those guys. The modles and textures look amazing even for a game that old plus the effects of the different weapons ect.
Reply #166 from Sins Forums Top
Not a bad site except for the damn pop-ups. I always wonder about sites with pop-ups as they tend to be purely a commercial venture and not a real gamer oriented community.
Reply #167 from Sins Forums Top
well it will be cool to have this mod. I love Babylon 5 battle style as i said in my post of battle sustain of ships ... https://forums.sinsofasolarempire.com/?aid=176049
Reply #168 from Sins Forums Top
BTW, if the mod team for the B5 mod happens to want some webspace, www.modcraft.net has an entire forum dedicated to Sins modding -- and I'm more than happy to make a B5 specific one!
Reply #170 from Sins Forums Top
Okay, my brain hurts from reading all the posts, so I'll make this easy on my brain and just say this.

I've been a B5 fan since it aired.
I've been poking with the code of this game since Beta 1(Hi! I'm the guy that got 10,000 planets on-screen).
I'm willing to lend my aid to creating this mod.

If anyone who is heading the Modteam wants to contact me, that'd be sweet. Elsewise just keep me updated on the progress and look me up if you need any other help.
Reply #171 from Sins Forums Top
I think people are quite buisy playing the game right now and currently people are brainstorming :)
Reply #172 from Sins Forums Top
I've been reading up on this thread for a couple months now since I'm a big B5 fan as well and love SINS as well. I'm kind'a curious though since I don't recall anyone mentioning it yet. Is it even possible to model the actual Babylon 5 station itself in game? I imagine like a planet in SINS with its own gravity well.
Reply #173 from Sins Forums Top
The station should be easy to do. Simply replace the asteroid or junk graphics and change the resource values.
Reply #174 from Sins Forums Top
Question - Will it be possible to mod in rotating parts of a model? Like the rotating part of an Omega or B5's rotating core? I somehow doubt it seeing as how weapon hardpoints don't track in the game and space stations don't rotate... everything seems to be stationary. Then again, people were able to mod in rotating parts in Homeworld, so maybe it's possible here?
Reply #175 from Sins Forums Top
Well given there are animated elements on the ships I dont see why rotation would not be possible but I'm no 3d expert so I may be wrong.