[WIP] B5 Conversion

[feygan]

Ok so there has been some great b5 shipsets put out so far but I was toying round with a few things the other night and had a go with changing the galactopedia, much to my delight I found the actual text side very simply to do. In addition we have a nice new bias file to play around with race relations, and the new races/familes really open things up.

So in short it seems like a B5 total conversion is almost doable, the current aspects that I have found that can be done are.

1. Ships, all straight forward, just a matter of having enough for each of the non human races.

2. Races, again not too tricky they can have their own images easy enough and the races/bias txt files mean they can be made so they act as close as possible to the show as well as interact appropriatly (narns hate centauri etc).

3. Music, not too bad as there was the b5 soundtracks released that gives a nice mix of your slow calm times and quick combat type scenes, so really a case of finding the most suitable pieces that work well.

4. Galactopedia entries, these again are easy in so far as the text goes. For example it's easy to edit the humans to give a back story and discription for the EA from b5.

5. Sound/graphic effects, this is again not too bad as its all in the replacing of image files to suit the universe.

Ok onto the things that so far I am unaware of being able to edit.

1. Techs, so far the tree has to stay the same.

2. Backstory, after nosing around I can't find any files that pertain to the story element at all.

3. Galactopedia images/names, Unless I missed something then there is no way at present to change either the images you see on the race discriptions in the galactopedia, nor does it seem to change the name of the race in the listings. For example I edit kaidens to become minbari, the page in the pedia reads everything correctly (minue the image). However when you expand the race listings in the pedia you still only see kaidens listed not minbari.

So before I can really get started I need to put out a call for help. To start with I'm neither the worlds greatest artist or that competent at artwork software to make sensible quick progress. So anyone who does possess those qualities and wants to jump on board please shout out. Even though it's really just a cosmetic mod there is still a fair bit of work that needs to be done and I do have a fairly busy life as it stands so ideally could do with help from one maybe 2 other folk to stand a chance of this being done before 2084.

[Igard]

Good luck with this feygan. DW is screaming out for a B5 mod. [8D]

[WoodMan]

It would be great, I've had a look around for ships but its hard to find top down shots of ships for B5.  Also, the top down shots I did find of Minbari stuff looks really weird, they have a recognisable side shot, but from the topdown are virtually unrecognisable.

[Igard]

Yeah, it's a shame that, they're beautiful ships. The Whitestar is recognisable from above though.

[feygan]

ORIGINAL: WoodMan

It would be great, I've had a look around for ships but its hard to find top down shots of ships for B5.  Also, the top down shots I did find of Minbari stuff looks really weird, they have a recognisable side shot, but from the topdown are virtually unrecognisable.

Sadly it's not only the minbari ships that lack a good top down view, hense the need for someone with some artistic flair (which counts me out) to lend some help with this one.

Two races I actually wasn't too worried about a lack of ships for were the shadows and vorlons, these I hoped to use to replace the current mechanoids and shakuri. Even though they do have full shipsets, the general philosphy of thos races in the b5 universe means you never really know what a ship is upto. A prime example of this would be when they humans disover a shadow vessel in mars, in DW terms this means the shadows send a construction ship to repair it, however in the show they just send a battlecrab to use its beam weapon and carve the thing out of there. In this regard I did intend to only have a handful of different ship graphics for these two races but reuse them over on the ship types.

[Simulation01]

I have found some more ships that I've been editing with Gimp.

LINKS:

http://www.shipschematics.net/b5/b5_data.php?filter=VorSmall

http://archive.firstones.com/tp2b/index_b5.html

http://amras-arfeiniel.deviantart.com/gallery/?offset=0

http://www.wolfsshipyard.mystarship.com/EFCustom.html

I found some cool stuff at these sites. It has really been a labor finding top down B5 ships, as has been mentioned, however....the race I really want some images for is the Brakiri. I have created what passes for a League of Non-Aligned world's faction. Here's is a picture of some of the ships I have for the League:

[Simulation01]

This is what happened when I decided to get 'artistic' with the B4 Station....lol...it became my new colony ship!

[feygan]

Thanks for the links there, I did find a brakiri shipset made for SEV that I haven't yet had a chance to look at properly to see if it will work.

[WoodMan]

If you find yourself short of a few ships per shipset I would be willing to try and convert your existing ships to make new ones.  Just let me know if you need a hand. 

What races do you plan on adding to the mod?

I would do one of the following:

Playables: Earth (before the assasination and B5 break away), Minbari, Centauri, Narn, League of Non-Aligned Worlds, perhaps Drahk if you can find ships
Shakturi/Mechanoids replacements: Shadows replace Shakturi, Vorlon replace Mechanoids

or

Same as above but playables: Babylon 5 and the Non-Aligned worlds after the split from Earth, Earth after the split, Minbari, Centauri, Narn, Drahk

or

Same as above but you try and make the Non-Aligned worlds and B5 seperate factions, but that would involve probably making up ships for the B5 faction

I would probably go with the first option, but any would make a good mod.

[feygan]

Your first suggestiong was pretty much on the button with what I had in mind, the only difference being setting the date way back to 2150 before the first centauri meetings. This obviously then requires a slight break to cannon in that up until then earth had no interstellar travel.

[feygan]

Currently on hold due to limitations in what can and can't be modded in the game at this time. Though I have come across quite alot of various ship sources in different formats so now and again when the mood takes I am going to knock out a ship or two of these hopefully intime for when the modding scope gets opened up.

[Gray Death]

I would really enjoy a B5 mod for this game. Hope will make it. [:)]

Unfortunately i don´t have modding skills.[:(]