TobiWahn_Kenobi TobiWahn_Kenobi

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

[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

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

 

14,165,840 views 5,473 replies
Reply #4676 Top

Quoting Darvroth, reply 4675

,

Please be sure to use the latest build to minimize duplicated effort and thanks.



I am currently using the version  sotyr_0.44a01_SneakPeak for Rebellion. It was the latest build I could find, but if there is another one it would be nice if you'd tell me were to get it and I'd be glad to use it. 


Reply #4678 Top

Quoting Darvroth, reply 4677

https://bitbucket.org/TobiWahn_Kenobi/sotyr/overview

Download 41db07b

 


Thank you! Sadly, the site just says "You do not have access to this repository", so I am not able to download it, yet. I just created a account for bitbucket and the e-mail is confirmed. Any idea how to fix that problem? 

 

Reply #4679 Top

Quoting Martechi, reply 4678

Any idea how to fix that problem?

The mod leader TobiWahn will need to confirm access level and he won't be available till Thursday.

 

Edit: A warning though, it is an internal build and still has a few lingering stability problems, though we haven't had a reported crash in several weeks.

Reply #4680 Top

Quoting Darvroth, reply 4679

The mod leader TobiWahn will need to confirm access level and he won't be available till Thursday.

 

Edit: A warning though, it is an internal build and still has a few lingering stability problems, though we haven't had a reported crash in several weeks.
 
Okay, I'll wait for thursday! I am already excited. Stability problems are normal I guess, when the build is not finished. But I remember the earlier days of sins of a galactic empire, where I couldn't play longer than half an hour without having a minidump (today I am sure, I used a wrong version then), but it still was fun. But that's no reason to get disappointed for me. I will still play around with it and hopefully get some information and suggestions that will be helpful. 
So thank you already and I'll start giving it a try as soon as I get the build.  

Reply #4681 Top

TobiWahn,

I rewrote the Titan tech pathways and the AI was ignorant of the change. It continues to blaze the shortest tech path for "the" tech that unlocks the titan ship. Given my numerous other attempts to influence AI behavior I see no alternative but to tweak the existing tech paths. The EA and Centauri are in the best shape but could use a couple tweaks. When in possession of the next DB I'll make that a priority.

Reply #4682 Top

Quoting Martechi, reply 4671

I am so glad to see this mod still alive. The babylon universe was always one of my favorites and simply to see an omega destroyer flying makes me happy again!

I would be absolutly amazing to see the mod completly finished some day. It is already amazing, but to have station and ship models for all units, fitting the babylon 5 style would make the atmosphere even more perfect! I hope you will keep up that great work! Hopefully it helps to know, that here are people who simply can't wait to see more of it!

No matter how long it will take to finish this mod, no matter how the final version will be or if there will be a final version at all: I have already played this mod for hours and it was incredibly fun, so I want to thank you, thank you for all the time and effort you put into this mod. As a player, I think it was totally worth it. Thank you, for so much fun and thank you even more if there will be more in the future!

Wow, big thanks for your kind words!

 

Quoting Darvroth, reply 4679

The mod leader TobiWahn will need to confirm access level and he won't be available till Thursday.

Problem is, on the free plan from Bitbucket, we can only add 5 users to a repository. And we are already full. So here is a sneak peak for all to enjoy

https://mega.co.nz/#!1UgCWSpI!ncyhi8hTc-dcMXbJezJduW9dKX-hCQnk5krr5U-o-RI

it is the latest build

Reply #4683 Top

Quoting Darvroth, reply 4681

TobiWahn,

I rewrote the Titan tech pathways and the AI was ignorant of the change. It continues to blaze the shortest tech path for "the" tech that unlocks the titan ship. Given my numerous other attempts to influence AI behavior I see no alternative but to tweak the existing tech paths. The EA and Centauri are in the best shape but could use a couple tweaks. When in possession of the next DB I'll make that a priority.

OK. I've sent you another link now, hope that one works (it does for me at least)

Reply #4684 Top

Quoting TobiWahn_Kenobi, reply 4682

Problem is, on the free plan from Bitbucket, we can only add 5 users to a repository. And we are already full. So here is a sneak peak for all to enjoy

https://mega.co.nz/#!1UgCWSpI!ncyhi8hTc-dcMXbJezJduW9dKX-hCQnk5krr5U-o-RI

it is the latest build



Thank you! As soon as I get any suggestions or most importantly bugs, I'll let you know. Apart from that I think, this is going to be incredibly fun. 

 

Reply #4685 Top

Quoting Darvroth, reply 4681

It continues to blaze the shortest tech path for "the" tech that unlocks the titan ship.

I'll clarify, the AI (every race) takes the quickest research path unlock the titan ship. The AI is ignorant of perquisites to actually build the titan, the game designers apparently did not conceive or care enough to account for this in AI behavior. This leads to many problems for AI players but doesn't hinder human players. SotYR titan unlike SoaSE are very late game accomplishments epitomizing the height of technological fusion. I see two options and would appreciate feedback:

1 - Re-write the tech path for each race to force the AI to research certain techs on its quest to obtain the titan. This will significantly increase the length of the tech path and will increase the cookie cutter aspect as the AI will research the same techs in the same order every game. This will also remove human player choice to some extent.

2 - Move the titan unlock to a more mid-tier level to satisfy the AI requirement and specifically label those additional techs that will satisfy the build requirements for the titan. I don't yet know if the AI treats the titan factory as a priority or it is assumed it is just another planetary structure. I can adjust as this is determined.

Reply #4686 Top

i've played the first sessions now and the build seems stable until now. The only thing worth mentioning: Sometimes the fighters (In the special case I encountered this problem now about 2 times it were earth-alliance Tiger Starfurys) tend to fly off into space, not staying in the gravity well of a planet and leading everyship following them into nowhere. 

It seems to be happening when the mothership of a squadron got destroyed. 


I know this is a problem in some mods, but I don't remember seeing it in this mod before so often.  

Reply #4687 Top

Quoting Martechi, reply 4686

I know this is a problem in some mods, but I don't remember seeing it in this mod before so often.

Sadly yes, it has bedeviled us for about two years now. I've taken several steps to mitigate and we were discussing additional measures just last week. We'll see if the next several builds can reduce or eliminate the problem.

Reply #4688 Top

Quoting Darvroth, reply 4687

Sadly yes, it has bedeviled us for about two years now. I've taken several steps to mitigate and we were discussing additional measures just last week. We'll see if the next several builds can reduce or eliminate the problem.
Okay, I already thought that would be something that annoys since a longer time. 
About ideas for balance/pacing: I know the whole resource thing, income and stuff will be overdone many times until this one is finished, but when I played the last games, I had the feeling that the jumpgates are a bit cheap, or maybe I should say "easy to use." 
If I understand the text right, the AI is meant to be able to also use them against you. I don't now yet how far they really do use this to their advantage, but at the moment it just feels to easy to put jumpgates at many planets to make your fleets move arount incredibly fast. Maybe, if the gates were  more expensive in terms of ressources and tactical slots, the use of them would become a bit more strategically important. 

Another thing: I researched the minbari workers/builders spacestation and got the ability on my construction ship that I had build before. Using the ability seemed to work, but as far as I can tell, nothing else happened. The ship just stayed there, doing nothing. Maybe it did something I've overseen but if it's meant to become a station, that was definetly not working. Might just not be done yet, but I already love the idea! 

Reply #4689 Top

Okay, last one for today: When played in window mode on a max resolution of 1366x768 the research screen seems to be cut-off: http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/b9cf/rye6mgla8bz6hijfg.jpg?size_id=8

This seems to be only the case when this mod is installed. Other mods or the vanilla game don't have a problem like this. 
A friend of mine found out when playing the sneakpeak1. I don't know if it has been fixed already, but it seems a bit odd, because I personally never had this problem. But we are pretty sure there is nothing messed up in the settings, so I just wanted to let you know. Maybe it is something that can be fixed. 

Reply #4690 Top

Quoting Martechi, reply 4689

Okay, last one for today: When played in window mode on a max resolution of 1366x768 the research screen seems to be cut-off: http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/b9cf/rye6mgla8bz6hijfg.jpg?size_id=8

You're the first to report this specific problem. If you could provide resolution settings it might help, others on the team may need additional data to either replicate or make a recommendation to mitigate.

Reply #4691 Top

Quoting Darvroth, reply 4690

If you could provide resolution settings it might help, others on the team may need additional data to either replicate or make a recommendation to mitigate.


I'll give you all information I can get. So, my friend is runnig the game on a 15" laptop.  http://puu.sh/bcNyG/44f8761772.jpg <- these are the possible resolution options. The activated one cuts off the part of the techtree, the others don't do much better. 

When I take this resolution option, I get the same problem es well, luckily I can  change the resolution to 1600x1900 or 1280x800, where the problem doesn't seem to be seen. 
Also, in fullscreen mode, some of the techtree pictures seem to be "out of place" like that:  http://puu.sh/bcKE9/51df37fac2.jpg 

I think this is about everything we know. It's not a vital problem, but it just seemed odd because only the babylon 5 mod has such problems as it seems.  

Reply #4692 Top

Quoting Martechi, reply 4688

About ideas for balance/pacing: I know the whole resource thing, income and stuff will be overdone many times until this one is finished, but when I played the last games, I had the feeling that the jumpgates are a bit cheap, or maybe I should say "easy to use."

There are two flavors of jumpgate, a planetmodule and a starbase. The AI will make and use the planet module but I have never seen it use the starbase variety. To be honest I've not played that much with the jumpgates or the capital ship jump engine aside from making sure the ability works. Lightning raids were a part of B5 warfare which is way most races have two tiers of orbital guns and it is good the AI makes heavy use of mines.

Use of ship equipped jump engines come with a hefty AM fee, while the jumpgates are free to use (from an AM perspective) they also only jump to allied jumpgates. If you have found this not to be the case please list instances in detail and I'll look at the code and see if that is expected or not.

Reply #4693 Top

Quoting Darvroth, reply 4692

while the jumpgates are free to use (from an AM perspective) they also only jump to allied jumpgates. If you have found this not to be the case please list instances in detail and I'll look at the code and see if that is expected or not.
The jumpgates are working pretty well. But I have one question: We just finished a multiplayer match, both playing earth alliance in one team. We both build a jumpgate and were able to travel with them, so I could use the other ones gates without problem before we had a jumpgate pact. Is this meant to be? Because if it is, I maybe don't quite understand what the pact really is for. 

Reply #4694 Top

Quoting Martechi, reply 4693

We both build a jumpgate and were able to travel with them, so I could use the other ones gates without problem before we had a jumpgate pact. Is this meant to be? Because if it is, I maybe don't quite understand what the pact really is for.

The pact allows a faction to use a different races jumpgate network. There are different combinations of Jumpgate network access, if you were allied there is tech in the EA tech path that will allow allied use of jump gates. The gate pact allows use of a different races jump gates without being formally allied, say merely at the level of non-aggression. If you and and the other EA human player were not allied and still able to use each other's jumpgate network that would be new and I'll have to look into it. Can you confirm if you were allied or not?

Question, were you playing a network or internet MP game? There is a sync error in the network MP we have been unable to isolate.

Reply #4695 Top

Quoting Darvroth, reply 4694

Can you confirm if you were allied or not?
We were allied. 

Quoting Darvroth, reply 4694

Question, were you playing a network or internet MP game? There is a sync error in the network MP we have been unable to isolate.
We were doing a internet MP game. Everything was fine, only one thing was a bit odd: some of the research bars (for example the earth-minbari-war research) seem to get stuck and don't show the progress properly. Maybe this has something to do with sync problems? But it was just a very little thing, we just noticed it both. 

I did another single-player game as well. Here some things I noticed: 

1. Some units still have vanilla phase-line effects (hermes transport for example) but I guess you already know that. 

2. The Narn Rothan-Destroyer has some problems when attacking enemy ships. It just runs foward right into them. This just looks really really weird, not like something that should be that way. 

3. The Narn G'Quan class capital ship tends to "glide" sideways or even backwards when used in bigger formations of 5 or more ships. When attacking the planet, the ships sometims don't line up properly and seem to collide with their hitboxes which causes them to move around very weird. 

4. Also, the lasereffects of the G'Quan class are still not perfect. When the ship fires at a structure and the structure gets destroyed, the ship often continues to fire into nothing until the attack is done. Nothing important for gameplay, just for the looks. 

Finally, the game crashed before the glorious narn could destroy the enemy capital. It was a regular minidump, the game froze. I have the dmp data here, in case you can need it: 

 http://www.mediafire.com/download/e4nksiesefdyw32/Sins-Rebellion+v1.82-2014-08-30-15-39-31-5456-4492.dmp

 I hope something of this stuff is helpful! still, it was incredibly fun to see the narn again. I love them. I just have one more question/suggestion: 
Do you plan to have fighter units aviable to build alone, without carrier? In the series they used their fighters often alone to attack enemy outposts (just thing about ragesh 3, some squadrons were able to take out a lot of civil structures). It would be really fun to use some frazi class fighters to raid the enemy.

 

Reply #4696 Top

SOTYR manual link is broken.

I used to be a board games designer (Fusilier Games) and would be glad to offer help with the manual. The IT stuff is a bit beyond me, I've only just begun to teach myself C++.

Reply #4697 Top

Quoting Martechi, reply 4695

I did another single-player game as well. Here some things I noticed:


1. Some units still have vanilla phase-line effects (hermes transport for example) but I guess you already know that.

- Yes very little attention has been paid to visual effects. It has been more important to get the mechanics as close as we can and the ship models built.

2. The Narn Rothan-Destroyer has some problems when attacking enemy ships. It just runs foward right into them. This just looks really really weird, not like something that should be that way.

- The model is a place holder and is larger than the intended model, I also adjusted weapon 3 to match the albeit short range of weapon 1 in the forward arc to reduce this. Should see in the next build.

3. The Narn G'Quan class capital ship tends to "glide" sideways or even backwards when used in bigger formations of 5 or more ships. When attacking the planet, the ships sometims don't line up properly and seem to collide with their hitboxes which causes them to move around very weird.

- Various ships and planet modules have this problem, some of it relates to the particulars of the model "edge" interactions and AI route path calculations. The engine also has problems with large close formations, if you set formation to loose you won't see this as frequently, but there may be a tactical cost to doing so.

4. Also, the lasereffects of the G'Quan class are still not perfect. When the ship fires at a structure and the structure gets destroyed, the ship often continues to fire into nothing until the attack is done. Nothing important for gameplay, just for the looks.

- Current beam duration is 3 seconds which closely matches the show visuals. That the rest of the mostly vanilla Sins explosions don't correspond.... We haven't had the chance to do more than list these timing interactions as in need of work. Play enough and you'll find ability visuals, esp. missiles that are out of synch with explosions. If missile A and missile B use the same graphics and missile B has an 8k greater range than missile A, things get out of sync. The limits of the Iron engine drive many a modder nearly mad but we do as well as we have time and the knowledge capacity to do. Thanks for the input.

Finally, the game crashed before the glorious narn could destroy the enemy capital. It was a regular minidump, the game froze. I have the dmp data here, in case you can need it: http://www.mediafire.com/download/e4nksiesefdyw32/Sins-Rebellion+v1.82-2014-08-30-15-39-31-5456-4492.dmp

- I don't have the skills to deconstruct but I'll ask if someone else can. If you could state the factions and how far along on the tech tree the game had progressed that would help.

I hope something of this stuff is helpful! still, it was incredibly fun to see the narn again. I love them. I just have one more question/suggestion: Do you plan to have fighter units aviable to build alone, without carrier? In the series they used their fighters often alone to attack enemy outposts (just thing about ragesh 3, some squadrons were able to take out a lot of civil structures). It would be really fun to use some frazi class fighters to raid the enemy.

- Our pleasure, this has been a labor going on five years and we are still in the Alpha build...but from a functioning mod baring the 70 odd missing models it is close to beta.

Reply #4698 Top

Quoting Darvroth, reply 4697

Our pleasure, this has been a labor going on five years and we are still in the Alpha build...but from a functioning mod baring the 70 odd missing models it is close to beta.
I'm glad if any input helps! 

Quoting Darvroth, reply 4697

If you could state the factions and how far along on the tech tree the game had progressed that would help.
It is difficult to say where exactly I was on the tech tree, because the last savegame is not quite actual, so I'll try to give you the best information I can:

it was a random small map (22planets) I played as narn vs an earth-alliance Hard AI. The AI and I had both about half of the planets. My research tree was far enough progressed to research the narn titan (the dreadnought) and the patrolship after it. I only had the higher techs nescessary for that and most of the lower tech stuff in all trees. 
By the exact moment when the game crashed, the bombardment of an enemy colony was finished.  

Reply #4699 Top

Quoting Martechi, reply 4698

By the exact moment when the game crashed, the bombardment of an enemy colony was finished.

So late game, the proverbial needle in a haystack. If you could run an EA vs EA and a Narn vs Narn... if only one race causes the crash that would help quite a bit.

Reply #4700 Top

Gah, the Narn tech tree has so many problems induced by earlier reform efforts.