Hmm too bad i cant edit my topic, anyway im not part of their B5 modding so i just change few things around and correct them for myself.

Trying to balanced it out for my ideal.

One more thing having Alliance and Techs Trading enable would be more enjoyable playing the game itself.

Enjoy.

Hrm, ... So far I tried only Narn, but why don't they get beam weapons?
And does this apply to all races? If so again the question: why?

Dunno they disabled them for some reason, overpowered perhap? If they are all you can do is adjust the numbers alittle.

Disabled the beam weapons will kill B5 though.

Disabled the beam weapons will kill B5 though.

Most definitely, yeah.
Narn and Humans in B5 use beam tech extensively.
I wouldn't mind though if e.g. the Centauri would not gain access to beam tech.

Well actually ALL races use beam weapons in B5...
The addition of pulse beam weapons would be nice, btw.

Seriously guys, posts like the last few make me wish I stayed lurking.

Please read the readme, changelog and actually play a full game before posting criticisms. The tech table on the website is also pretty handy.

Beams are most certainly in the mod, they branch off a little way down the mass driver path. This is the best way to make beam technology more difficult to aquire as simply increasing the cost of the first beam tech doesn't work well with the AI.

@Redindus: The changelog and readme should clarify all of your points. To explain one thing more clearly though: Misc Hull Design includes Earthforce1 (the EA cargo hull I assume you refer to) and a couple of basic hull classes for the benefit of the AI's ship designing process and the gc2ships file. The AI will not actually build any ships that look like the Misc Hull Design vessels.

...and in a complete different vein, what's the 'media addon' about? (213MB zip) I thought the mod was self-contained.

Rav8 - Excellent work

I though the Cortez was a Earthforce explorer ship not firstones ship.

The Cortez is a EA Explorer/jumpgate construction ship.

Kushan

why isn't the EA Explorer/jumpgate construction ships set up as earthforce survey ships when you play as the EA ?

@ Rav: Just checking if you had my e-mail? Tried to send you one from the site.

@ Adder: Well, it depends how you define beams. Most of them do, yes, but they vary greatly from one race to the next. If you mean lasers, then no. There are many types of weapons in the B5 Universe: Particle (used mostly by Drazi & EA but by a few others as well), Laser, Plasma (Pak'Ma'Ra love those), Molecular (Minbari & Shadows mostly), Electromagnetic (Minbari & Vorlons mostly (including the dreaded planet-cracker beam), Matter, Gravitic (Brakiri are big users), Antimatter (Vree's favorite), Ionic, Ballistic (EA love those missiles)and all the wierd First Ones Tech.

Btw, any reason why to leave the Vree out?

Spaxspore's media pack is largely made up of videos of the leaders for the diplomacy screens (ie. they replace my pics). A happy, neutral and angry one for most of the races. Other videos like an intro replacement and event screen replacements are also included in the media addon.

@BIG MTG & Kushan: Yup, the Cortez shouldn't be included in Firstone Hull Design. EA should probably get it, I'll fix that in the next verson.

@Icewyng: I am a long way from home so I can only really communicate through the board at the moment. I will get your email in about a week and a half . The Vree are in the mod as a minor, they even have two of their own ships from B5.

@Skaiger: I missed your post till now sorry... All components have a sizemod that adds a percentage of the hull size to the component size. This is so that things take up more space on larger ships. Logic says that this should only apply to engines and defences so I will eventually decrease the sizemods of weapons and increase the sizemods of engines and defences. That website you posted looks really helpfull, thanks!

@ Rav: NP. All I was saying in it was that if you were willing to consider the B5Wars wargame (published by AoG) as a source to help fill out what is missing, I'd be glad to help out on that( got a few books). Writers were using this game as a resource for technical stuff in the series so It could really help. Defensive tech is a bit more elaborated in there, as is the weaponry used by races w/ some background provided as well.

Saw the Vree hulls while browsing the website... just didn`t see it under the "minors" section so I was just wondering.

Please read the readme, changelog

Did that, found no hint of beams now being part of mass driver branch.
Maybe I'm blind?

and actually play a full game before

Did that - thank you. 8 out of 8 races went for missile tech, so I found no hint that beams might be hidden somewhere along the way either.

Ooops, but thatnk you for the clarification. Thank you.
When starting the next game as EA tonight I'll know what to do.

@rav8
this thing annoyed me at first but now i seem to like it. sizemod is logical and i like when things go logical.
i was thinking... maybe it would be good if you will make size of the hulls uniqe for the races? it would add extra spice into the mod.

@ Adder: The beams are about 7 research steps after the mass driver theory, right after the plasma accelerator (it branches off in two, 1 is beam theory, the other pulse discharge. Oh...a BTech fan I see btw?

@ Rav: Just curious... since lasers are considered (by galactic standard) old tech, why so far into the tree?? the Sharlin was using Neutron Lasers in circa 2050 as the first ships with Pulse Cannons in EA appeared after they studied Pulsars from the Dilgar around 2240s. Plasma Cannons were used by the Pak'Ma'Ra circa 2190ish. Antimatter & Molecular beams would be at the high tech end of the tree.

Oh...a BTech fan I see btw?

Well "fan" would probably be a bit exagerated. But I have certain affinity to it, yeah.

Yeah some of the weapon techs are in the wrong order, I just wanted to get them all in to start with. When I go through the branches making most of the techs race specific I won't be constrained by trying to make them all fit in a orderly sequence.

make size of the hulls uniqe for the races

All part of the plan . Lots of ground work has been done under the hood to make implementing this easy and effective - it's something I am actually pretty excited about. Racial tech branches and significantly different fleets will be the two features I'll concentrate on for the 0.5 release.

Any feedback on the Vorlons and Shadows? Are they stronger now? Do they turn their awesome starting planets in to powerhouses?

Have problems downloading spaxspore media pack!Tried previous version.WAs awsome looking so far...did you make right change to narn heavy fighter Frazi?

@ rav: sounds very good. I like the direction you are going for with this mod. I am sure it will give a great B5 mod. Tech race branches sounds very good. Guess there is only need to figure out what goes where I could provide dates and info if needed.

I am trying out the vorlons in my game right now, Ill come back with some feedback soon.

@ Adder: thought so. and you got some affinity with Clan Star Adder I presume? Btech is one of my favorite games, along with B5Wars & SFB.

haven`t played for vorlons or shadows, but played against them.
all the ai was doing is fulling those planets with research buildings. the problem is they are not getting the colonise tech. so with just two planets they aren`t really tough for a firstones.
maybe they should get a limit on colonies or something like that.
when i played as EA against vorlons, shadows, drakh, narns and centauri the shadows and vorlons were destroyed first.
i dont really think that EA by its own could have conqured the firsones. not even one of them.
aside from all that, they look really great.

and by the way. how can i get acces to warp drives techs? can i even do that? i saw the branch but could never find out.

and you got some affinity with Clan Star Adder I presume?

Yeah, mostly because I especially like the clan logo.

As for Vorlons and Shadows I made the same observations as Skaiger did.
Playing EA atm, the Shadows were the first race that fell prey to my need for expansion. They didn't stand a chance because they had no ships to speak off.
I think two worlds are just too few to really get something going for them.
And if noone really cares about trading them the Colonial tech they're f*cked.

Also, though this might be a result of the fact that I had the other races' AI randomized, in two games no other race seemed to be overly interested in building up significant military power. In my first game as Narn I was building Massive Hull ships while EA had a hand full of Thunderbolts, the Minbari had one or two Nials orbiting most worlds and the Centauri had no ships at all, although all of em had lots of well built worlds. In my current game it's pretty much the same. Even worse, since except for me NOONE has built a single ship yet(except for colonies, contructors and freighters) and I didn't really push military development.

And one question:
Since the First Ones are not implemented as minors, who gets their hulls?

Did you modify Star Democracy? When I switched my civ to Star democracy, everyone's planets that were red stopped being red, except the Narns. I don't know if this is a B5 mod or a 1.31 bug, so I have inqueries in both places.

have to agree that the vorlons and shadows have been poor performers in games ive played. if youre going to stick to restricting their colonization (a really cool feature imho) then you have to boost their economy and production so that they can push their homeworlds. they just cant compete with the other races if they are building at the same rate on less worlds.