PBA???????


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The TLA PBA may stand for:

Pacific Buddhist Academy
Palm Beach Atlantic University
Professional Bowlers Association
Partial-birth abortion
Philippine Basketball Association
Pantip Basketball Association
Patrolmen's Benevolent Association
Prevent Blindness America
Provincetown-Boston Airlines
Police Benevolent Association
Thalys PBA, a European high-speed train derived from the French TGV.
Programmable Base Address
PbA stands for lead-acid battery

I'm planning on making a total mod on all alien races. I have had this idea of a story line in my head of a human galactic civilization. As it turns out, man is indead alone in our own galaxy (as we know of since we've only settled 1/4 of the galaxy. A human galactic empire has just collapsed after the royal family has been assassinated. Add to that, an electronic virus is spreading throughout the systems either destroying the machines, collapsing the galactic civilization communication network. Hyperdrive has also been affected by the virus. Every world is cut off from one another. Thousand of worlds collapse and only a few planets survived and even in those planets, the population dropped dramatically. Man had to rely on hunting and gathering. 30,000 years later, humanity is beginning to rebuild. Taking to space and some to the stars. But on this one particular planet, a planet called Earth, hyperdrive is rediscovered. But unknown to all humanity, a race of machines once created by humans, surviving the virus through self reprogramming, is also taking to space. Once loyal to men, now they blame humanity for the collapse and countless death. They have a new mission, to preserve most life and ensure the collapse never happens again. Like a Gardener, they will kill the weeds, the weed called mankind. Well, i'm not really a great modder. I can come up with the story and even some of the graphics, but if anyone wanna help out. Let me know.

Nice story

PBI. sorry, a typo. for poor bloody infantry. Heinlein, being a navy man himself, felt the need to give this underappreciated part of the military some small portion of the credit they deserve for the excedingly unpleasant job they have to preform. in the Navy he never had to worry about a warm bed, regular bath, or most of the other acoutriments of 'civilization', just sudden death. infantry get the sudden death but few of the comforts of home, and they get to live right in the middle of the problem, worry about 'slow' death, capture and torture, and several other sorts of unpleasantness while being viewed by the general public in the same esteme as your average sailor, if that. seems RAH wasn't content to let this gross inequity slide. while i DO love the book(hated the movie) i don't see any way to bring any reasonable aproximation of it to this, basically naval, game.

Dune on the other hand gives them pretty much equal time, such that it concerns itself with warfare at all. now that i think of it tho you prob can't simulate some of the aspects mentioned very accuratly, but you should be able to come close enough to make an enjoyable gaming experience for any Dune fan who is willing to accept a few minor compromises

While I see your point P0corp1ne, this was originally meant to see what ideas were out there that weren't based on someone elses story...ie, Dune, Starship Troopers, Star Trek, I was curious to see if people had any idea on what they'd like to be able to do in the game, or ideas all of their own like the one above, which I actually like...

So, as it didnt' really go in that direction I still went with it, and I think with enough creativity a starship troopers mod could be cool, you'd just have to have enough artistic flare and know how, could make a good mod. I think a good mod should be just as much about making the person get into the storyline of it, as changing the names of the techs....

I'm currently working on going a different route with the star trek ships, while I love the ones being done by spleeze, no word on them getting out, they look like they will be heavy on polygons, and cut out on the creative ability. Same with the Bab 5's , they don't move for me atleast in the combat viewer, and building on them is boring....

the one I want to put out will allow all the creative freedom of the ship building (my personal favorite part), while giving the feel of designing your own borg ship, federation, or klingon ship....its much easier than I thought it would be to accomplish this....and I already well on my way to having 5 different distinct race style ships that can be built and move in the combat viewer. Additionally I'll prebuild some of the base hulls to resemble everyone's favorite StarTrek ships as Omega has done, just with less components as to not slow up the game...

Anyways, I'm going to get back to work, hopefully this post will spark some more conversation

i see. i took the 'not tv show' part a bit too literally. if your wanting orininal content the way to go is prob just wait for dark avatar and the customizable ai and see what sort of personality/style you can work into it and go from there. build up a collection of ai setting that work resonably well, then build up a story from there, rather than the other way around. let your mod grow organicaly as it were.

about shipbuilding. while i do like shipbuilding(alot) for many, if not most, mods it should be disabled. on some even research should as well. while it clearly does not take full advantage of the programmed resources it WOULD give the mods the appropriate character. using the full game for a, say Babylon5 mod, actually only gives you the visual flavor of the namesake. you don't have to play the Narn like Narn, you just do whatever you normally do but with Narn looking ships. if you are forced to use actual Narn ships on the other hand you have to be the best Narn you can be . it's all too easy to fall back into old habits. putting the lockdown on shipbuilding, race customization, and tech takes that option away, making it almost a new game, even if a somewhat lesser one. the fixed ships would be useful more often than the fixed tech. for some mods it would make perfect sense to 'unlock' more advances ships by gaining tech. B5 is a prime example of that. they DID have tech trading and research over the course of the show. but a shadow 'doom ray'on a starfury, that's just...wrong. which is not to say that i disaprove of ppl using custom ships in the base game, far from it. but a mod, that's another matter entirly. on the bright side, it is the easiest thing it the world to have it both ways if you've done the work to make a unrestricted mod it should only take moments to edit it to produce a restricted one, assuming Stardock included the option in the first place, of which i am uncertain. can you restrict research and shipbuilding in a mod?

for your pending mod tho this doesn't apply in the slightest. original content should use as much or as little of the game engine as your vision dictates.
oh god, i better get off my soapbox before i talk myself into a hell of alot of work, lol. your wanted the pot stirred? i think this should do it.

haha, yeah....I have to say I agree, and disagree...and i'm not one to normally ride the fence, even though I usually see both sides of the story.... I'm big on letting people have the choice though, and very small on the forcing people to..."be the best narn they should be"... I've come to find that usually, when I'm forced into doing something I may enjoy it a little while, but it lacks a certain luster for me... Always been a fan of the "choose your own adventure" type of way I guess. I definately can see though how having the ability to change ships around can for some people take away from that story....but on the other hand, a true fan might get a big kick for themselves creating their own story, which possibly with the editor of dark avatar could become quite entertaining.... Off the top of my head...lets say I put in a way that you can choose to put some borg pieces onto any type of ship, lets say federation....a person could choose to play a race that was both, yet neither...Say the Federation had been working on a way to basically send a virus through the entire borg collective, basically, for this we could call it the "rogue thought", and this would actually start to cause more turm oil in the hive, causing borg to leave the hive (sound familiar?), well before it caused full damage it was stopped, leaving some borg never able to rejoin the hive, yet never being able to not be borg...

Yes, unfortunitly its late and I just got back from the hospital so I didn't put details in there, but hopefully you see the potential for an interesting story line if done correctly...

Long point, made short....I belive a player should be able to choose how they are going to play, either use the prepaid designs that fit each races already thought of design, or allow someone to steal from that design, and make it their own, I mean, really who wouldn't want to design their own Federation ship? Or their own Borg ship? I know one of my favorite episodes and favorite looks on a ship was seeing a federation ship be converted into a borg one.

somewhere burried in all that text i point out you CAN have it both ways with just a few minutes extra work . the main point is i was suggesting was SOMETHING DIFFERENT. not just GalCiv with some makeup. selectivly limiting research, shipbuilding, whatnot can produce a very different gaming experience, one that potentially catches much of the flavor of the source material. you KNOW that if you are having a little trouble your game you will want to fall back on the strategies that worked with your drath/yor/insert-favorite-here and pretty soon it IS just more of the same. removing options can foster variety, you see? and those that want free rein, more power to them, they can have it too. some literary works are fairly static, to allow research fundamentally alters the character of the simulation. others are technologically highly dynamic, to remove it from those mods would be a travesty. ocasionally tech trading fits even if research doesn't.

i guess what i am trying to say is with control of just these functions you achieve more of a total conversion mod, and that would be a good thing i think. anything that milks a few more hours of enjoyment out of the game must be a good thing, right? and changing a few 0's back to 1's is all it takes to make it freeform, good old fashioned GalCiv2 with a facelift;)


here's hoping you just came from work at the hospital, not some sort of crisis

I'm working on an alternative story mod. It's where after 2 more world wars, the main human nations hav etaken to the stars to escape the ravages of Earth. They discover 1 alien race: the Thal. I'm planning on doing a custom map and mabye even a scenario or campaign. It uses current world leaders and nations. Any thoughts on this would be appreciated.

well, basically the more factions the better. and the factions need to be distinct, not just 3 copies of faction x with different names. if you have just one alien race you MAY want to try to work out multiple factions within that race, pro-human and anti-human perhaps?

and if you do a custom map as being integral to your mod you will limit the number of ppl that will play it. some ppl only play small, fast maps while others mostly stick the the large ones. granted, this is not a part of any contest or anything(is it?) so a take it or leave it approach may be just fine

Thanks, on voicing your opinion, thats what I'm really hoping for, I see your point, and I think I may even use part of it, possibly release two mods, one a strict level and one on a freeform.

MacMatt I love the idea, and I have to agree with P0rc    Just try to really involve a different style for each faction so they do not just turn out just as copies...I also would say I love the idea of having the aliens also be divided in to factions too many times you see an alien race totally allied with each other as us low humans being the only civilization that can't get along with each other....(dark avatar - going against that, love it, klingons having the same problem, love it)

Thanks, on voicing your opinion, thats what I'm really hoping for, I see your point, and I think I may even use part of it, possibly release two mods, one a strict level and one on a freeform.

MacMatt I love the idea, and I have to agree with P0rc    Just try to really involve a different style for each faction so they do not just turn out just as copies...I also would say I love the idea of having the aliens also be divided in to factions too many times you see an alien race totally allied with each other as us low humans being the only civilization that can't get along with each other....(dark avatar - going against that, love it, klingons having the same problem, love it)

Thanks for your opinions guys.I'm going to include more Thalan factions if I can find the picture. How would you suggest I make the races distinct?

if you like the pro human/anti human dichotomy you need to preset the attitudes of the facttion toward all the human factions. and decide if any of your human factions will be xenophilic while you're at it. since you seem to intend to do this before Dark Avatar will be released i guess you will have to pick 2 of the current ai to represent them. or they can be the same ai but with different bonuses, that would make more sense i think. give the pro human a bit more diplomacy and maybe influence, the anti should prob get a bit of military production and weapon and/or defense, they are headed for war after all. keep the bonuses small tho, they are not THAT different.

as to your human factions, i would make a list of candidates and compare what i knew about the character of the various ai and try to match them up. put up a fresh thread to sample more experienced players take on the character of the various ai unless you figure you know the differences between them well enough.
fit your story line to match the 'nations' you can reasonably match. and use the racial bonuses to bring the ai closer to your concept of the nationalities.

while i am thinking of it here are some of the more plausable human nationalities. feel free to use or ignore as you please some don't currently have programs but it is somewhat plausable for them to develop them in then near future. if some look odd to you concider distance from the equator being somewhat of a factor.

american
russian
chinese
japanese
french
german
brazilian-they do have a bit of a space program now, don't they?
israeli - likely to be destroyed in one of those wars, but the tech is there
korean
turkish
british
venuzulan-hmm, seems i can't spell today, lol
they are getting pretty unlikely past this point i think, but conceivable
canadian
mexican
belgian
moroccan
brunei

well, those are ones that i can come up with plausable arguments for just off the top of my head, if one suits your purposes but you don't see how thy might be canidates fell free to ask

I currently have the

americans
british
french
italian
german
eu
the New Soviet Union (a creation of my own
I am now going to put the japanese in it as well.

One question, how do I preset attitudes?

I have various things in the works.... ideawise... but not sure how to implement without more hull styles and jewlery types...

while i don't personally know how to set the initial attitudes i know it can be done. maybe check out the torians who i believe hate the drengin by default, and i thing the drath and the altarians have a coded beef too. i haven't done any modding and don't intend to until dark avatar comes along and opens up more ai flexibility.

I've submitted my mod to the library, and I'm waiting for it to be approved.

I'm currently working my way through a new tech tree that will give each race individual technologies, and allow the custom player to choose a mix of the different races technologies, one race's propulsion tech, and another race's ship building and research techs for instance.
Unfortunately tech stealing somewhat messes up individual techs, but I'm hoping there will be an option to turn off all tech stealing added in the future.
As I plan on having every race being recreated as a unique new race with a unique tech tree, if anyone has a good idea for an unusual tech tree and/or a race to go with it, I'd be open to suggestions.
Also, would this idea really appeal to anyone?

How exactly do you give each race their own tech tree to use in the game??? I find that EXTREMELY appealing

Well, it's not exactly an ideal solution, but I'm doing it like this. I remove Xeno Ethics from the tech tree, so no one can ever be good, evil, or neutral. I then make my individual tech trees, and give each one a starter tech, say "Standard Tech Tree" for example.
I then make "Standard Tech Tree" require a good, neutral or evil alignment (it doesn't matter which). You then need to set the race to have that tech as a starting tech. As no-one can research Ethics, no-one else will ever be able to research it, but the race can start with it. This also means that the custom race can choose a starting tech, and research off from it (because you can choose techs that need alignments as starting techs).
I've also set universal translator and alliances as starting techs with no cost, because I'm not sure if you can make more than one universal translator tech for example.
Does that help? If anyone has a better way, let me know.
This method also has the side effect of stopping ethics flipping. Now if you want evil bonuses from planets, you have to stay evil.

Ahhh, yes it does - Terraner05 may have some ideas for you - please see the "Star Trek Mod - Images & News" thread

Wonder if anyone considered a FireFly mod where a full gammit of custom designed ships would fullfill the alien ship we get asked for ethics some worthless some not... cludged and ugly for Reevers and dangerous. Also the Reevers would actual parts-out your wreck and steel tech plus the damaged engine cores would damage your ship even on a flyby because of no core containment. The roll of the dice on "flyby" and "investigate" would add a level of unpredictability AND reprocussions for ethical choices. Your scavange operations would leave your ship vonerable... etc. Also trade deals gone bad... Watch the series you'll get the idea. FYI The series was dumped in favor of more politicaly correct, fuzzy shows. This would create a dicodamy for clear ethical allignments and would need considerable planning for ethics spectrum. Great game though guys even if you fudged the square root of 521.

Id love to see a battlestar galactica mod that'd be cool

I have seen mods for the Star Trek Series and movies but is anyone working on the ships and races from Star Fleet Battles? There are more than enough Major and Minor races and a wealth of scource material for an alternate tech tree. Just wondering.