new link should work now. The "manual" is exported from our database. If you want to make a really nice Manual you are welcome to do so. It will be an awful lot of work though

I've been digging into overall balancing between the races and there are some huge disparities. Some should be there but others strike me as unintentional. When done the races will not be balance for many reasons but they will be more balanced than they are now.

Also, if a planet is unlocked and I assign a populationcap bonus or penalty from that point then I have effectively customized the planet types for that race which has been a discussion point for a while AND I can do this without having to make or modify the existing planets which would otherwise be a lot of new work. Short of a eureka moment but nice all the same.

 

We had another, very enjoyable multiplayer session against minbari. 

narn and EA vs minbari.

This time, we has no minidump, but a runtime error (R2025 if anyone knows what that means)

"pure virtual function call"

We are not entirly sure, no reasearch was made by that exact point. the narn research was on its way to get the supportive research in the military tree, the EA research was just about to start the carrier cruiser one.

I also played a session narn vs narn against the AI. the AI seems not to build any missile frigades or destroyer. It was odd to see it using every other ship type but not THEM. Otherwise, nothing happened, no crash or something like that. maybe the next one will be more useful.  

This one was pretty much midgame, but it was fun until this point. 

Today I only played the new released dawn of the reapers, just had to after been waiting for so lond. Beautiful models, but it clearly showed me, how important the techtree and abilities actually are. Although it is in a comparable state as this babylon 5 mod, and even looks more finished only by ship models and menu screens, the game just doesn't feel as complex and fun as it does in the babylon mod.
This mod here might have more oddly black blocks instead of finished ship models, but it has the more important mechanics that make it really worth playing for a long time, over and over again. 
By no mean I want to offend anybody in any team, both are incredibly good mods I am looking foward to see finished someday and both teams have a lot work to do. It was just a nice experience that really showed again how much great work is already done here. And that's the reason why I will always gladly play another session of this one again and will hopefully be able to get some other information together. And, as someone who already worked on projects (not nearly as long and great scaled mod-projects like this one, but still something for some months), I maybe can imagine a bit, how important it can be to get some positive feedback from time to time. so, congrats to you guys!  

It's working now.

My offer still applies.

Many thanks for the words and to Darvroth for making it that fun to play (and to all the others helping him of course!)

How would you go about making that manual? You are invited to do it (I'd love to have a nice manual), but what do you need to do it?

Thanks

Tobias

5

Thanks. Agree, though ShipMaxSlots is only part of the formula, since it entirely depends on the buildSlots of the ships of each race.

NP. Build slots are only a capital ship function and there are good reasons which we have already discussed for the current limitations. I was thinking more to frigates. This esp helpful on the larger maps. As to the other variables on ship toughness I've built a paper spreadsheet and am making some tweaks but the races will have strengths and weaknesses relative to each other. I'm also only looking at the total bonus/penalty assuming all techs are researched, there are times along each races tech path were they are advantaged or disadvantaged. EA civil war for instance applies some significant penalties to the EA, all are resolved eventually but the research path to do so is up to the player depending on their area of focus.

I've had some nice matches on smaller maps, mostly against the same faction. No crashes so far and no obvious bugs to report (only usual cosmetic stuff like unfitting textboxes or effects). 

The only thing possibly notable was my own experience when playing the narn. I can imagine, this stuff is one of the less finished work, but at the moment the narn capital classes seem mostly a bit "useless" compared to different classes in for example the earth alliance. 
I just get the feeling that the research for these ships is just an "addition" to other useful stuff, but not really nescessary itself. Most of the times I play, it is enough to just rely on the first capital ship class and simply wait for the g'quan to come instead of using the the two or three classes in between in the meantime.
If the paths in the tech tree would be less "parallel" and more bottom-up, maybe with some more specialization in the classes, the narn gameplay would become more complex and with that- more interesting.

Also, just as a question: are vorlon ships meant to use shields? Maybe I completly miss something in the lore, but as far as I know their ships are mostly described using organic armor wich is more regenerative.  

EDIT: just looked at the downloads.

 

So how would I go about downloading the 1.82 version of this to play/test?

 

Thanks for the information! I haven't really figured out that stuff on my own, my bad :/, but now that I know it seems this gives some interesting opportunities.

  Playing against someone using the vorlon showed: these are some pretty hard ships. But they seem to work well! This colonization thing the vorlons have, that disables their colonizer for some time, really helps out in the early game. I personally found it especially hard to fight them on larger maps, when they get a chance to get a strong economy running. But their ships seem to need to work in fleets to be truly effective. I like that! 

 

Appreciate the comment. We tried hard to make each race feel different and use different tactics to win. Minbari for example have long range lethal beams but comparatively fewer ships among other weakness' (if you can find them). The Narn use a mix of short range and long range weapons (this disadvantages the AI which tends to stop once any weapon comes in range). The Centauri use weapons of middle length and tend to favor forward weapon arcs, they also use fewer fighters but have many frigates in the 4-6 logistic point range. Centauri ships are either a bit ponderous (with very heavy weapons) or agile with correspondingly lighter weapons. Adjusting the mix of a Centauri flee is a constant challenge. EA are the most overall balanced and have the largest selection of ship types. Shadow and Vorlon ships tend to have only a single beam or pulse weapon but have awesome hitting power that frequently auto-pops frigates.

I'll look at this but it is a significant effort if applied to every ship. I'll work it after the titan issue is addressed.