TobiWahn_Kenobi TobiWahn_Kenobi

[v0.54.2]Babylon 5 - Sins of the Younger Races Remastered {Rebellion 1.95+} *UPDATE 16.05.2023*

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[v0.54.2]Babylon 5 - Sins of the Younger Races Remastered {Rebellion 1.95+} *UPDATE 16.05.2023*

Babylon 5 mod effort for Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion

from Sins Forums

This is the story of the last of the Babylon 5 mod-efforts. It's goal, to prevent another failure, by creating a place to solve our problems collaboratively. Its a port of call, home away from home, for modelers, texturers, programmers and sound engineers. 

 

Babylon 5 - Sins of the Younger Races

 
Disclaimer:
The authors are not responsible for any damage that may arise from using this mod. This mod may not be sold under any circumstances. It may be downloaded, as long as it does not violate the laws of the state/country you live in. This disclaimer must always be distributed with the mod. For other used please contact me personally.

Thanks to the TEAM:
2D Artist: Tobias Liebhart (TobiWahn_Kenobi), SteinerX
Bughunters: Rob Cummings, cybertx, Darvroth, Peter1x9, ZombiesRus5
Coders: Ronie Albesa (zRazor), Rob Cummings (NewHorizons), Davroth, EvilTesla-RG, Rodney Jenkings (HotRod), Tobias Liebhart, Zvezdochets
Model Templates: Amras-Arfeiniel, James Newman (Firehawk)
Modelers: Ronie Albesa, Amras-Arfeiniel, Fileosoft, Johan Klaver, Koobalt, Tobias Liebhart, Stefan May, Timmaigh, Pauli Valkeejärvi (Hawkwall), Zvezdochets
Musician: Pauli Valkeejärvi
Research: Rob Cummings, Darvroth, Rodney Jenkins
PR: Darvroth, SteinerX
Sounds: Rob Cummings, Pauli Valkeejärvi, Zvezdochets
Texturers:  Tobias Liebhart, SteinerX, TFL_BigBangTheory, Timmaigh, Pauli Valkeejärvi, ZombiesRus5
Moderation: Blake00


Additional support: boshimi336, Lavo_2, myfist0, Gürol Salk (Geopard)

And to
MysticAngel for the Automated Fighter docking ability
The Babylon 5 X3TC team


And thanks to all those modelers whose work is a inspiration and a template for creating ingame assets

If I forgot anyone, please contact me so I can give proper credit. (There seem to be so many decent people involved at the moment)

 

Release 0.54.1 Full Download for Rebellion 1.95+
& Patch 0.54.2

Sins Of The Younger Races Remastered

NEW - Balvarin Carrier and Minor Factions fix!

 

 

Installation Guide:

  1. Download the latest Sins Remastered mod from here:
    https://www.moddb.com/mods/sinsre
  2. Extract the archive into a 'SinsRemastered' folder in your 'C:\Users\%username%\Documents\My Games\Ironclad Games\Sins of a Solar Empire Rebellion\Mods-Rebellion v1.85' folder.
  3. Download the latest Babylon 5 Sins of the Younger Races mod from here:
    https://www.moddb.com/mods/sins-of-the-younger-races
  4. Extract the archive into your root 'Mods-Rebellion v1.85' folder instead of a new mod folder as the archive ALREADY contains a premade 'SotyrRemastered' folder inside of it (so if you're not careful you'll end up with a mod folder inside of a mod folder and it won't work lol).
  5. Start Sins and go to 'Options', then 'Mods', and you should see the mods you've installed.
  6. Enable 'SotyrRemastered' and then enable 'SinsRemastered' too. Make sure that the load order is SotyrRemastered first/top and then SinsRemastered second/bottom.
  7. Restart Sins and you should be good to go!

Sometimes the in-game mod loader can be a bit funky so if you can't see the mods you've installed or something isn't working then enabling the mods via the 'EnabledMods.txt' file in your 'Mods-Rebellion v1.85' folder where you installed the mods to is the other alternative. It should look like this to work:

TXT2
SinsArchiveVersion 194
Version 0
enabledModNameCount 2
enabledModName "SotyrRemastered"
enabledModName "SinsRemastered-v0.95b"

 

DISCORD:

https://discord.gg/9AwgByEEKn

 

Old Blog with screenshots and infos maintained by SteinerX can be found here (*OUT OF DATE*)
http://babylon5ins.blogspot.com/

 

Yours TobiWahn_Kenobi

 

modding sins modding
14,173,838 views 5,473 replies
Reply #2976 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Darvroth, reply 2975
I have several abilities ready to test and have modified the ship entity files, but I still need to figure out how to add a correctly mapped button to activate the ability. Assistance would be appreciated.

Do you mean the ability showing up on the ship or the ability's icon?

Reply #2977 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Darvroth, reply 2975
but I still need to figure out how to add a correctly mapped button to activate the ability

Not sure what you mean by this. Do you mean a proper icon or description or just being able to use the ability.

If you just want to use the ability, put the name of it (excluding the ".entity") in one of the ability slots of the ships entity file (but not in ability:4 unless its a passive ability)

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Reply #2978 from Sins Forums Top

I did that and it did not show the button as active. I used slot 2. I'll play with more if it that simple. I was attempting to use an already started game but now realize that may not be possible. It may have to wait till next weekend though.

Darvroth

Reply #2979 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Darvroth, reply 2978
I did that and it did not show the button as active. I used slot 2. I'll play with more if it that simple. I was attempting to use an already started game but now realize that may not be possible. It may have to wait till next weekend though.

Darvroth

You can use a started game but need to spawn a new ship. Ships you had before adding the ability wont gain them.

Reply #2980 from Sins Forums Top

TobiWahn,

Where do you find the StingID? Many of the abilities point to such files. Examples:

nameStringID "IDS_ABILITY_*************_NAME"

descStringID "IDS_ABILITY_*************_DESCRIPTION"          * denote a name placeholder.

HUDIcon I know we don't have in most instances. Is is better to leave blank or use the name I want knowing no such file exists? So many questions...file structure is a nightmare, flexible but opaque.

Darvroth

Reply #2981 from Sins Forums Top

subfolder strings, file "language.str" e.g. english.str

As for Icons, best use some existing for testing. If you look at some of the sotyr entity files that have no icon yet (research, ships) you notice I've already made a blank icon which you could use.

Icon names are specified in the *.brushes files.

Reply #2982 from Sins Forums Top

Hi all, I wanted to post screenshots of the Omega with the new engine, but there are no dev tools in rebellion Beta 1. I could deciver the changes in the entitiy files but cannot get the models working due to a new ConvertXSI being neccessary. Hopefully the tools will be included in beta 2.

Reply #2983 from Sins Forums Top

TobiWahn,

Finally cracked the code on Abilities... Expect 3 tested multi level abilities with Buff files for the EA Hyperion. That leaves it with only 8 buffs for 10 levels. I have not cracked the code on string files though I do know where they are, instead I will include a .txt file with the appropriate verbage. The string files are rife with errors, the biggest are mismatches between weapons listed and what is in the entity files. A minor issue but it will take time to clean up.

Near as I can tell the 5th ability slot in the entity files in addition to being passive only cannot contain level progression. It is a one time buff.

I'm still playing with the ability files but suspect there are some hard coding limits to how far they can be stretched.

My son has been helping me test and game multiplayer, learning a lot. He begs me every day wanting to know when the Shadows will be playable. Several issues I'll post at Origo.

Darvroth

Reply #2984 from Sins Forums Top

I thought it worked,  4 hours later and it still mini dumps! Gah!

Reply #2985 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Darvroth, reply 2984
I thought it worked, 4 hours later and it still mini dumps! Gah!

Doing abilities can be a b*tch. Thanks for the efforts. Real life keeps me busy but I hope to have and update for making shadows playable this weekend. There's still much missing (ship prerequisites and such) but for a very early draft it should suffice. Thanks to your son as well :thumbsup:

Reply #2986 from Sins Forums Top

TobiWahn,

I'd hold off till the tech tree is stable and the necessary entity files are correctly sequenced, and the other balancing recommendations are in place. Then you can launch 0.44 with the (mostly) complete tech trees for all 6 playable races. With that in place additional work on abilities, ship models, other mechanics and balancing can continue.

Origo is going through one of its unavailable periods, I'll update when able.

Darvroth

Reply #2987 from Sins Forums Top

I've internally got the shadows research done for a first preliminary test. I will tell you (davroth) once I've checked the files into the repository (this week) so you can do your tests/work on them. I've started working on the shadow scout.

Reply #2988 from Sins Forums Top

Damn, just got the message that Origo is closing down. End of may is end of service. Anybody knows a good replacement? Does ModDB have a repository of some kind? Issue management? Wiki pages?

Reply #2989 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting TobiWahn_Kenobi, reply 2988
Does ModDB have a repository of some kind?

It hosts downloads yes. Though, due to how borky their uploader is, you're best off uploading from a url when putting up a dl on moddb (you'll understand what I mean if you try to add stuff to it).

Reply #2990 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting TobiWahn_Kenobi, reply 2988
Damn, just got the message that Origo is closing down. End of may is end of service. Anybody knows a good replacement? Does ModDB have a repository of some kind? Issue management? Wiki pages?

I'm not aware of moddb having anything like that.

I use code.google.com for my SVN repository. It also has support for wiki pages and issues. Not sure how it compares to Origo but you might take a look.

 

Reply #2991 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting ZombiesRus5, reply 2990
I use code.google.com for my SVN repository. It also has support for wiki pages and issues. Not sure how it compares to Origo but you might take a look.

Thanks ZombiesRus5, I will take a look, though I do have that creepy feeling whenever google is involved in my creations...

Reply #2993 from Sins Forums Top

TobiWahn,

Nice! With your permission I'd like to spend a bit of time correcting string descriptions to more closely align with the entity files. Then back to atacking abilities and buffs.

Darvroth

Reply #2994 from Sins Forums Top

TobiWahn,

Simply changing the name of an ability or buff entity file (even when the corresponding internal names are also changed in agreement) seems to break a previously working entity file creating a mini-dump. What am I missing? Ability, buff, ship, and research entity files and string names are all in agreement and yet it still dumps. Gah, there is some connection I'm missing, any idea?

Darvroth

Reply #2995 from Sins Forums Top

If you change the entity name (which you should better not do) you need to adjust the entity.manifest (here all entities that need to be loaded are specified). All the entities are exported from my database (including the strings) so it would be best for you to send me just the entries that need changing. I will then change them in the db, reexport and check in the sources into bitbucket.

Have you got access to the application Filemaker?

Reply #2996 from Sins Forums Top

No Filemaker, I'm an IT featherweight. Learning but it can be slow going. I'll retry some of my failed attempts with original names and see if I can overcome my string of minidumps.

Darvroth

Reply #2997 from Sins Forums Top

Gave the Minbari a good vetting yesterday in MP, posted the issues.

The Minbari have by far the best tech tree layout. There are too many early ship and resources buffs, some need to migrate to more mid-game. From an in-game perspective there is little difference in the way the Minbari capital ships play, that may change once the abilities are in and working. I'll dig into the entity files to compare and contrast what is not apparent in game, adjusted string descriptions and or visuals may help that.

Minbari main weapon beam range is awe inspiring. It is not uncommon for a Minbari captital ship to pop (one-shot-kill) one or two frigate/cruisers of the other younger races before that race can even close to their maximum weapon range. Once the Minbari have 5-6 Sharlin class or batter capital ships in one fleet they sweep the other younger races before them. It is a blast, but not while on the receiving end. It is cannon but from a game perspective will need close review for balance. An upgraded starbase will give the Minbari pause and will work to delay conquest till the larger mid-to late game fleets.

The Minbari are fun to play. Fleet size is small but lethal. Once a gate network is built using two fleets alternating between offense and repair/refit worked very well. The fleet in refit was the strategic reserve if needed.

The Narn for the most part lack rear facing weapons, when confronted with a superior Minbari fleet is better off staying to fight. When the AI turns to run the Minbari pop the ships with impunity. Since the Minbari overall are faster the Narn simply die. While not as well tested, EA and Centauri also favor forward facing weapons but not to the degree the Narn do. An ability to give the Minbari pause should work to mitigate this tactical/strategic disadvantage.

One odd note, composite beam weapon damage is implemented at the end of the beam firing cycle, not as apparent for the other races but since the Minbari almost exclusively use beams it is a weird combat element.

Darvroth

Reply #2998 from Sins Forums Top

TobiWahn,

Got several abilities working solidly in game, then came back from lunch to be met by unending mini dumps. Didn't change a thing otherwise, frustrating does not begin to describe it.

Darvroth

Reply #3000 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting Darvroth, reply 2998
TobiWahn,

Got several abilities working solidly in game, then came back from lunch to be met by unending mini dumps. Didn't change a thing otherwise, frustrating does not begin to describe it.

Darvroth

Sorry to hear that. It's really hard to find out what causes the dump concerning abilities. Best to add them one at a time and playtest them at length before adding another. It is frustrating, I know. That is the reason why there are so few abilities for now. It's damn easy to break the game with them.

As for your issues, many thanks for playtesting the minbari so much. I will get around to work on them the coming week(end) I hope. This helps tremendously!! But it will be really hard to balance the Minbari out. We will need to limit their military power early on in terms of sheer mass but still be canon about their strength. Difficult.