Babylon 5 Mod (idea)

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FrozenFallout
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Babylon 5 Mod (idea)

Post by FrozenFallout »

So after playing a bunch of Horizon and watching Babylon 5 a ton while playing I think a Babylon 5 mod is a must and it already has the feel of Babylon 5.

The base is all there for the Mod almost. Instead of starting on earth you start on Babylon 5 and have all assets maxed out, colonization for the begining of the game would not function. You play as Babylon 5 from Season 1 through 5 via missions. Have ships and techs you research and races populating the galaxy of different power levels. The mission system could be used to tell the story to a degree and give you options. Much of the mod would focus on diplomacy and use missions/diplo to get races to work together and create allies.

Movement may be an issue but jump gates are already in the game. More restricted movement for a scout ship but bigger ships would have jump drives making things more complicated also hyper space would probably be something that would need to be over looked.

The more I play Horizon the more I feel like I am playing a version of Babylon 5. Even some of the missions feel very Vorlon like but with a different twist.

The major issues will come in I think in art more then simple modding of the game to feel more like Babylon 5.

You could have a mission that has to do with the Shadow War and where two super powers leave. After that you do a story line where Babylon 5 takes back Earth. This is where you start to colonize and actually own more then your one planet and would lead to you building the Alliances with missions that try and rip it apart like the attack on Earth by the Drakh or whatever they are called.

You could also go the route of playing as Earth at just before the start of the Minbari war and have to recover and build relations via missions and diplomacy and build a Babylon 5 (well 1 through 5 each getting their due). Then after the Shadow War you lose all Earth space and become Babylon 5 and must fight to get it all back.

In anycase I will be working on a Babylon 5 Mod once the game comes out of Beta but wanted to through some ideas around and see if anyone would like to help or have some ideas for the Mod.
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CellNav
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Re: Babylon 5 Mod (idea)

Post by CellNav »

Hiya FrozenFallout,

I think the first step for Horizon is to allow a game mode called "Sandbox". Currently we have Normal/Classic. Sandbox mode would allow the player to setup a game and set parameters that you outlined in your mod. This first step will get your mod out as a variation to the current theme. The next step is adding assets and I fear (as you do) that it would be the most grueling part.

I hope that the devs can build a Sandbox mode because I think your idea is great and the sandbox would be the foundation for all mod addons. When they get to that point I think you and the other players that have ideas for tweaking can toss ideas around about which parameters to tweak when creating a sandbox. Those ideas can be the initial build and you and the others can help develop the whole thing!
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FrozenFallout
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Re: Babylon 5 Mod (idea)

Post by FrozenFallout »

CellNav wrote:Hiya FrozenFallout,

I think the first step for Horizon is to allow a game mode called "Sandbox". Currently we have Normal/Classic. Sandbox mode would allow the player to setup a game and set parameters that you outlined in your mod. This first step will get your mod out as a variation to the current theme. The next step is adding assets and I fear (as you do) that it would be the most grueling part.

I hope that the devs can build a Sandbox mode because I think your idea is great and the sandbox would be the foundation for all mod addons. When they get to that point I think you and the other players that have ideas for tweaking can toss ideas around about which parameters to tweak when creating a sandbox. Those ideas can be the initial build and you and the others can help develop the whole thing!
With the Mission system and the whole idea of races being part of premade story lines a Sandbox mode would be perfect something that allows players to trade premade set ups with player made missions. Im excited to see what kind of support the modding community will get and what kinda support the modding community will give the game. The idea of missions and starting in a universe that has been alive and growing while you are one of the new members of space empires is awesome and as a story teller and avid table top gamer I hope to be able to customize the game in some regards.

Im also very interested to see what the finished product will look like. I think right now I have allot of ideas about mods running around in my head because so many different aspects are not fully finished. Like Powergrid that actually restricts fitting options, power use having an effect so your different power sources for ships really come into play. Enhancing the AI so it uses tactical combat options and fitting builds. Enhanced AI diplomacy and I hope we see more of each AIs personality and how they interact with each other.

Babylon 5 had a very dynamic diplomatic situation where each empire had very distinct goals and the interactions of each Empire was reacted to each other in different ways and voted very much based solely on how it would effect their own race. Humans although have a few very driven people and a very diverse culture of people compared to the very static and homogenized races that they encounter in the galaxy, they are also very corruptible and quick to impose their beliefs when in positions of power. Basically humans where the sum of all the allien races to some degree which gave them great diplomatic abilities in the series. This also allowed of a bit more straight forward and understood interactions between aliens before and after the involvement of the humans. But each race itself had a deep and interesting story that explained all their actions and why they did what they did.

The Shadows are only allied with the Drakh at the start of the series along with a few other smaller races. They are also at war with the Vorlon and are gathering allies with the promise of power but only want the strong and those willing to conquer others with force and be tools of Chaos. They also operate in the shadows and are not revealed until a certain point in the series for most of the races. Something that I wonder if the mission system could do and make it so the race doesn't show until a set of missions are complete. Also if missions could be triggered by reaching a turn or after a set of missions are complete that triggers a special mission.

The Vorlons are are start you think of as allies but secretive but have vast power. By Season 4 they are just another power house throwing around their weight where it doesn't belong and they end up going on an epic killing spree of worlds before being stopped by Babylon 5's Alliance of Old ones.

The Narn and Centauri are very interesting and have a great background story war that sparks up at the start of the show. Not to Mention the Human and Minbari war at the start and how they are connected.

What Im saying though is the very distinct personalities of each race as well as their actions in the show really show through and I think this could very well be one of the best games to mod to make such a story come out while still being a 4x strategy. Im also hoping that the finished game unmodded will also have very interesting background stories and interactions that each race has with you and the other races and I hope that we really get to learn about each race and see their background really come out in gameplay.
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