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-- Some comments and a few questions (https://volitionwatch.game-warden.com/vwbb/showthread.php?threadid=4160)

Some comments and a few questions

First I'd like to congratulate the Babylon Project Team on an above excellent job in their achievements with the demo. I was completely blown away by the quality of your work. It was so accurate I believe the only thing missing was the names on the side of the ships, and that doesn't really matter. I found the demo quite challenging and I must admit, found it hard to hit the Nials even on easy, I'd usually have to afterburn to point blank range to hit them, and most of the time they were faster even in afterburn, I had barely 7 kills total after I finished it.

I have some questions about the demo and upcomig releases I hope you can answer.

1. In the demo I understand there is only 1 MP mission, this is the remodified 1st mission of FS2 right? There are no more stand alone missions in the demo.

2. I read you could fly other fighters than the Starfury, can this be done in the demo with the Nial or Zephyr? If so, how? I can't access the ship selection screen before a mission. Also is this in the MP only or in SP too?

3. Can you add any weapons to the Starfury? In the tech library I saw a couple of cannons under EA and I believe a missile. But I can't access the weapons loadout before a mission.

4. In the screenshots post I saw around 7 Hyperions destroy a Sharlin when did this happen? I never saw it in-game, I don't even remember a battle that had that many Hyperions in it.

5. I read you can create your own missions how can I find out what I need to do it and any tutorials on how to make them? Does that also mean I can use in-game anims and sounds such as pilots conversations already in the mod or would my missions have no comm between pilots?

6. Is there any way to kill any Minbari Cap ships in the demo or are we always just cannon fodder?

7. Are missions affected by the outcome of past missions? Ex. If I pass the Jupiter mission with more than just 1 cap ship, I ask because I always lose all cap ships here but 1 Hyperion, do these show up later in the Battle of the Line?

8. About upcoming releases, I read the next release would have the Omega and the T-Bolt. Can you tell me a short list of any other ships or stations you are thinking of including in that release?

9. Will you be releasing any missions in the next release? If so, would they be stand alones, an addition to the Minbari War demo or another mini campaign? Could you give me an idea what they might be about? EA Civil War, Dra'kh War, etc.

10. Will the Omega fire both Plasma cannons and Particle Beams or are ships limited to a single type of weapon from a turret? Will the Warlock fire ballistic missiles?

11. Will there be canon, non-canon and fantasy missions made? Narn vs. Centauri (canon), Shadow War (canon), Dilgar War (non-canon), EA vs. Centauri (fantasy), EA vs Shadows in the Shadow War (fantasy).

I apologize for the size of the post but I wanted to clear all questions at once instead of making various smaller posts. I am really looking forward to your next release, I can't wait to fight alongside an Omega though I'm dying to see the Poseidon Carrier, the Warlock and the Explorer in action.

Also if you take suggestions, I find the Starfury a bit underpowered against the Nial. I know it's supposed to be, but I can't imagine how to engage Shadow fighters, Vorlon fighters (if you choose to make them evil here too) or Dra'kh fighters which are also stronger than the Nial. The T-Bolt won't be that much better, so my suggestion is this, not to make the Starfury's weapons stronger but maybe have the heavy Starfury in the mod. Don't confuse the Heavy Fury with the Badger, that's not what I'm talking about, It's a normal Starfury with more weapons. I found an excellent artwork rendition of a Starfury which has two mounted 40 mm pulse plasma cannons on each side and an additional three unidentified rapid fire machine gun mount (rail guns perhaps?) under the two normal 40 mm cannons. This Fury looks extremely lethal and I'd love to use it along with a few missiles as secondaries, it'd help a lot against Shadows and stronger fighters than the Nial. Just a suggestion but if you'd like I could send you the picture to see if you like the Fury and put it in the Mod. Anyways great job.

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One last stand to hold the line against the night...EA President

1. donno about that

2. it can only be done in MP now but in some time i think they will give em in SP too

3. right now only in MP but probobly in SP too when next releese comes

4. it was a custom made mission just 4 fun

5. there was a post here not long ago about creating missions find it and read it

6. yes yuo can kill a tinashi but you will need some time and in "the earth-minbari war" we where cannon fodder

7. dont think you can save any more than 1 cap if you want to save more than 1 you have to disarm the sharlins (that's impossible)

8. don't remembre it was written somewhere on the site look around

9. i hope they will releese campagains on all the wars seperately like earth vs minbari then shdow vs all ETC.

10. now i dont know about that too

11. i hope so


about the suggestion I WAN'T BETTER STARFURY but the missles, dont need em it's like a WW2 dogfighting and it rules

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[URL=http://www.hot.ee/ashrak]Ashrak and Miburos Render Lair[/URL]


WEBSITE NOW UP AND RUNNING!!!!!

1) Dunno about that

2) We intentionally disabled ship selection screen in the SP missions. I understand some stuff needed for that is not ready.

3) Actually there ARENT too many cannons you could have mounted on your starfury, the 42mm Raider cannon is worse. So , you are fine with your 40mm , believe me

4)

5) Yes , even in your DATA folder there is a FRED 2 tutorial . However , we could add some lines how to make breifings , that doesnt work the old FS2 way anymore....

6) You can kill Minbari Capships. In theory.

7) This feature is possible , I think it wasnt supported by demo...

8)

9) Follow up releases will ALL have campaigns . Of course , those will be longer than this 5 mission thingy ( we just made it to release something at all )

10) Omega will have its authentic weaponry. I don't know about the Warlock but I think it will fire missles.

11) Alright , TBP works the following way : WE will create lots of missions , campaigns freely invented , but we won't make anything that contradicts with something that was seen on the show.
That means, you will surely experience the plot of the series from another point of you , but you WON'T win the Earth Minbari War, for example.
There are no exact plans for the firstones like Shadows and Vorlons .
Except the Shadow and the Vorlon fighter I guarantee you the ship you are flying is no match to any other firstone vessel. So , if are having dreams of shooting shadow battlecrabs into pieces then forget it.
So , the firstones will more likely be obscure and powerful forces like in the first seasons . They won't become the "pals from the neighbourhood" and they won't become any easy-to-shoot targets.

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Freespace 2 : The Babylon Project team member
http://freespace.volitionwatch.com/babylon
-----------------------------
The sun is quite warm,
the universe is fairly large
and I have a loose mouth.

As for the Starfury being underpowered I sort of agree but not in terms of weaponry. I personally think that all of the fighters ought to be a little more fragile (or at least your own fighter, my wingmen seem to die quite nicely thankyou - are they different in any way?). This comment is only based on the fact I found it quite hard to actually die, even when just sitting there watching and evading a little.

I did feel that apart from that the relative strengths of ALL the ships was good and despite being in a hopeless fight it felt good just t try to survive.

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When the final reckoning comes only the damned will be there to see it.

put it on insane and then sit you will be dead as soon as in fiering range

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[URL=http://www.hot.ee/ashrak]Ashrak and Miburos Render Lair[/URL]


WEBSITE NOW UP AND RUNNING!!!!!

I have started to play it through on insane and you're right in a way the problem now is that the Nials don't always target the Starfuries in an organised way, engaging all fighters and making numbers count. i.e. Once in a dogfight the Nials are tough nuts to crack but they don't always target you immediately.

__________________
When the final reckoning comes only the damned will be there to see it.

Thanks for the replies.

As for the Fury weapons. I don't necessarily want to take out a Shadow Battlecrab single handedly, though having delusions of grandeur is sometimes fun . But even in the series, groups of fighters could damage cap ships. In the season 2 finale several furies engaged and destroyed a Centauri Primus supported by B5 but you could see the Furies actually making heavy damage. In season 5 Furies engaged and destroyed a Centauri Vorchan on their own. I'd just like the possibility of engaging larger ships, with the rest squadron not by myself, and actually destroying it. So I suggested the Heavy Fury I found. All space sims do have alternatives for fighter loadouts, I thought it'd be fun to have a Fury with more than just the regular 40mms and add a little more to its bite. Besides you wouldn't have to use the other weapons just have the option to use them if you want.

As for the story ideas I also thought it'd be nice to have some made up missions, not necessarily campaigns. I was always disappointed that the EA was never really seen as part of a war in the series (excluding In the Beginning and A Call to Arms) other than the Civil War. I always wished I could have seen Omegas, Novas, and other EA ships engaging Shadow Battlecrabs along with the Army of Light or fighting the Centauri or other villanous races, the Dra'kh War was suppossed to continue in Crusade but oh well. I've played B5 mods for Homeworld and some of their fictional stories are great. They have a mod where the EA and ISA are one side and the Shadows and EA Shadow ships make up the other, I loved that idea. You could also make up future campaigns which occured after B5 and Crusade like the storyline which was going to appear in the Into the Fire sim.

__________________
One last stand to hold the line against the night...EA President

ghost rider (hehe you took name from TOP GUN) you have allot of good ideas

__________________
[URL=http://www.hot.ee/ashrak]Ashrak and Miburos Render Lair[/URL]


WEBSITE NOW UP AND RUNNING!!!!!

So what you're aiming for is for accuracy to the series?

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"God is dead" - Nietzsche
"Nietzsche is dead" - God
"Everybody Dies" - Caleb
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I do want to be a fighter pilot in real life so I suppose Top Gun did have something to do with the name, though I also like very much the Marvel comic book character of Ghost Rider.

I'd like to see the series portrayed accurately of course. But I'd also like to see a touch of realism added to some things the series left out. In real life fighters can strafe a ship with their cannons and do heavy damage, with a Harpoon missile they can sink it or leave it completely in flames. 20 Starfuries might be able to do some damage to a cap ship in my opinion doing strafing runs or firing missiles.

I always felt B5 needed Carriers. The B5 Wars RPG fixed that adding the EA Poseidon, the Centauri Balvarin and the Minbari Morshin among others. Many are using them in their mods, including this one, and I like that. In WW2 there was a fighter class which was a torpedo bomber; this fighter carried a single torpedo, lined up with a ship and by using inertia, angle of attack and small propellers on the torpedo they would drop it in the water and it would smash into the sides of a ship. Wing Commander has torpedo bombers and in my opinion B5 could use them, maybe the Badger, I really can't find a practical use for that fighter.

I have for years collected B5 and sci-fi artwork, and I've found ships which look truly amazing. Personally I've always liked the Fury more than the T-Bolt, though I love both, and when I saw a fully armed version of the Aurora I was amazed, the only thing missing was the missiles under the wings which we know can be put there thanks to Thirdspace, so I suggested it for use in the Babylon Project so the Fury has a chance against the Vorlon, Shadow or Dra'hk fighters because if it takes this much to take down a Nial those others with only the normal 40mms, I don't know. I could give the Project Team artwork, sketches or screenshots of other Mods that have ships like:
1. EA Tempest Battlecruiser
2. EA Triton Assault Cruiser
3. EA Orpheus Battleship (Dilgar War)
4. EA Arterion Light Cruiser (Dilgar War)
5. EA Poseidon Carrier (I have the only 2 artwork pictures made so far)
6. EA Polaris Outpost (So we have more than just the ring)
7. EA Equador Frigate
8. EA O'Neil Space Station variants (Though B5 was the only one in the series, there is a possibility other stations like it exist, though not named Babylon as B5 was the last but maybe Station Prime in Earth orbit or other large stations)
9. Narn Bin'Tak Dreadnought
10. Narn Sho'Kan Destroyer
11. Centauri Roturian Heavy Fighter
12. Cenaturi Balvarin Carrier
13 Minbari Morshin Carrier (B5 Wars version or Homeworld Mod Version, I prefer the second)
14. Minbari Sha'Dum Battleship (the meanest ship ever made by the Minbari)

And story ideas I'm filled with, I can help develop realistic military campaigns for wars seen in the series as well as fully fictional conflicts (which I think may be fun to see). I'd like to help in any way I can, since I can't really model I can offer this instead. If the team is interested let me know.

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One last stand to hold the line against the night...EA President