[FUBAR-BDHR]

Zathras 2.7c available for testing.  If your just playing the game this is not what you are looking for you want version 2.6.

To use I suggest extracting into a new directory (something like Zathras2.7) and pointing the mod in the launcher there.  This way you can switch back and forth to confirm any issues with the previous version.  Of course you will need 3.6.18 or newer builds.     

Known issues:

-Texture replacement for the EA Tanker not working on existing missions.  This is due to an issue where the maps were shared with the Freighters causing a conflict with HTL versions.  Fortunately this doesn't actually break the missions you just don't get the alternate texture.  Fixes for those missions (which were all Vid's) will come down the road.
-Help for high-res IO main hall is broke.  While the engine now supports more then 2 main halls the help system apparently doesn't. 


Now for the good stuff:

-Updated versions of models are now included in Z_Advanced.vp.  This includes the HP Aurora's, HTL Freighters, cargo pod, HTL Zephyr, and HTL Venom 1 & 2 missiles.  The default is to use these updated versions.  If your machine can't handle them they can be "turned off" simply by removing Z_Advanced.vp from the Zathras folder.
-Some additional -shine and -glow maps have been added.  Note these are not changed maps being discussed in another thread but ones that did not exist before. 
-A few weapons have new or corrected effects.   Other alternate weapon versions added. 
-Vorchan has had fighterbays added to it so it can double as the Demos class.  Weapon for the Demos class also added.
-Additional Main Halls from Skullar are now included since the engine supports more then 2 main halls now.   Campaigns can now set IO by setting main hall to 1 and ISN by setting it to 2 in the campaign editor.  Name support will be added when that code hits trunk. 

Changes since 2.6:

-Fire points for all turrets should now be correct to within .0005m.  If that isn't close enough quit playing through a microscope. 
-All ships with fighterbays now have at least 6 bay paths to keep ships from colliding with each other at launch.  The only exception is the Skylark which isn't big enough to launch any ship in the game anyway.
-Some alternate Aurora textures have been removed.  These were not used by any known mission and there was no version for the HP Auroras available. 
-Several ships have had missing subsystems added.
-Explosions for non-field asteroids should now be correct
-KI Lordship is in the process of being reworked to be canon.  A working updated version is included but by no means finished. 
-Fixed F1 help screen for all but 1 of the main halls.
-MR Thoughtforce has had some major changes.  It now flies the correct direction, has subsystems, and weapons have been updated.  This should not cause any issue as I could not find a single mission using this ship.


Changes since 2.7a:
-Omega and Omega-X collision detection and other fixes
-Found glow map for the Schwartzkopf hidden in the 3.4b core.  Now available but I had to shorten the name so watch for that when using texture replacement.
-Conflict with HP Auroras and Badger textures fixed
-Conflict with HP Auroras and standard Aurora normal maps fixed
-Bunch of updated maps form emi_100.
-Nova and Warlock normal maps fixed
-Nova glowpoints now on correct subobjects
-New suns and lens flares from emi_100 added to Z_Advanced.
-Ships.tbl clean up.  This is a big one.  Since I now have svn version control locally and Zathras-shp.tbm was getting huge I decided to merge it and clean up ships.tbl.  So Zathras-shp.tbm is no more.  Additional-shp.tbm still exists but is just a dummy file with nothing in it to prevent the old version in the core from being read. 
-Vree support ship removed.  As part of the cleanup this was found to not be used by any known mission and since there are no vree player ships it's not needed.  It was just a copy of the EA support ship so can easily be recreated if needed. 


Changes since 2.7b:
-Updated version of the EA Nova called EA Nova#Guns.  This one has all the guns working.
-New Shadow version of the Nova originally made for EAS Janus.  Rebuilt off the Nova#Guns version and updated to take nameplates.
-Fix normal map conflicts with tabled retextured version of the Aurora's. 
-Weapons for the Shadow version of the Nova
-Couple of other weapons from EAS Janus
-Nial updated to allow use of new secondary for it.
-Orion bay paths tweaked a bit for better launches
-Zathras-wep.tbm merged into weapons.tbl and removed.  Weapons table cleaned up.
-Clean up of several other tables/tbms in Zathras.  No values changed here just made neat and readable. 

Some notes on this version: 
-The new Nova versions and the weapons are not final and subject to change.  If you want to use them in new missions just be aware you may need to edit the missions for future changes.
-The retextured versions of the Aurora's at the bottom of the list should not be used for new missions.  These will be removed at some point.  Please use texture replacement. 
-The additional secondary weapon for the Nial should not cause any issues with existing missions as it is not in the loadouts.  Be aware that if you don't want it used in new missions you will need to verify it's not available in the loadout editor just like the rest of the ships/weapons.
-I did fix a few minor bugs in weapons.tbl while cleaning it up.  If you notice any strange behavior please let me know.  Testing this table is the main reason for putting out this latest version.


Please give this some testing.  I have a completely new setup locally so it's possible some things might not be working the same in the .vp versions as my test setup.  I have tried to set it up so it should work properly but there is no guarantee I didn't miss something.  Also testing with and without the Z_Advanced.vp present (renaming to Z_Advanced.vps for testing should work just fine) would help. 

[Vidmaster]

-Vorchan has had fighterbays added to it so it can double as the Demos class.  Weapon for the Demos class also added.

Never even heard of the Demos. Fail to find it either. Not even on semi-canon sources like B5 Wars.
http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Centauri_Ships
http://www.isnnews.net/hyperspace/cent/index.html
http://doodlebot.net/redoubt/wp-content/uploads/2007/09/centauri1.jpg

I guess I missed some discussion here, someone please fill me in.

-MR Thoughtforce has had some major changes.  It now flies the correct direction, has subsystems, and weapons have been updated.  This should not cause any issue as I could not find a single mission using this ship.

Is it not used in FH2261 M4 (which is a somewhat broken mission)? On the to-fix-list.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Had no problem finding the Demos a few weeks back when I added it but now I can't find much on it either except for a lot of articles and items for sale that mention it as the Vorchan/Demos.  From what I remember it was the same ship with heavier weapons/armor and carried fighters supposedly from season 5.  So basically nothing that can't be done with special hitpoints, and changing out the main gun in FRED.  Wasn't worth making a separate ship class.

 

[Vidmaster]

Did some more research too, found some B5 action figures on Ebay: No Demos but "similar" objects seem to indicate it is a non-canon name for the Primus.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/sis.html;jsessionid=AF964711FFA9EB165C653F687B51CBCC?_nkw=BABYLON%205%20CENTAURI%20DEMOS%20CLASS%20HEAVY%20WARSHIP%20METAL%20X%202&_itemId=140318684570

The issue is that if the "standard" Vorchan has a fighterbay now, it kinda breaks the vessel. The distinguishing aspect of that ship is its high combat capability but lack of a fighter bay.
Changing that based on the potential existence of some ship on which we cannot find canon evidence at the moment is a little controversial to me. Especially since we do not really need this ship, our Centauri fleet is big enough and both the Primus and Secundus serve the role of the fighter carrier.


In unrelated topics:

That HTL fury and tanker really shows me what this mod needs. More good looking HTL models 

[wesp5]

I did some quick tests and the beam effects you included look fine! I still think the Centauri should fire a yellow beam too, because this is clearly shown in "The Lost Tales" when they fire on the planet Sheridan is on. If you don't want to do this, how would I choose the secondary weapon that you said can be set to such a yellow beam?

Also on another note, since when do the cobra bay side arms (I don't know how to describe it better) have such huge yellow window-like textures? If they were there before, were they also so yellow? They are not as obvious on the models in the title and menu and every picture I could find. Maybe they should be less yellow at least!

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Did some more research too, found some B5 action figures on Ebay: No Demos but "similar" objects seem to indicate it is a non-canon name for the Primus.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/sis.html;jsessionid=AF964711FFA9EB165C653F687B51CBCC?_nkw=BABYLON%205%20CENTAURI%20DEMOS%20CLASS%20HEAVY%20WARSHIP%20METAL%20X%202&_itemId=140318684570

The issue is that if the "standard" Vorchan has a fighterbay now, it kinda breaks the vessel. The distinguishing aspect of that ship is its high combat capability but lack of a fighter bay.
Changing that based on the potential existence of some ship on which we cannot find canon evidence at the moment is a little controversial to me. Especially since we do not really need this ship, our Centauri fleet is big enough and both the Primus and Secundus serve the role of the fighter carrier.

I did some more searching and found that this ship is in B5Wars and apparently considered canon to the B5 universe by JMS.  Unfortunately firefox took a dump viewing a link to a PDF (omitting long adobe plugin and updater rant) and I lost the link before I could post it. 

Anyway while this adds the ability for a FREDder to have ships arrive from a Vorchan if he wishes it does not break balance in any way.  He could easily fake the same thing by setting the arrival near ship with no warp.  The fighterbays are not targetable by the player so as far as existing missions are concerned there is no difference at all.  This just gives the FREDder the option for an alternate ship class without taking up a ship slot. 

In unrelated topics:

That HTL fury and tanker really shows me what this mod needs. More good looking HTL models 

Yes a lot of models are showing their age. 

[FUBAR-BDHR]

I did some quick tests and the beam effects you included look fine! I still think the Centauri should fire a yellow beam too, because this is clearly shown in "The Lost Tales" when they fire on the planet Sheridan is on. If you don't want to do this, how would I choose the secondary weapon that you said can be set to such a yellow beam?

Same way you change any other weapon on a ship.  Weapon editor under ship editor in FRED. 

Also on another note, since when do the cobra bay side arms (I don't know how to describe it better) have such huge yellow window-like textures? If they were there before, were they also so yellow? They are not as obvious on the models in the title and menu and every picture I could find. Maybe they should be less yellow at least!

This is one of the maps that was missing the -glow map in the core.  I did some searching and some pics from the show appear to have the yellow while others don't.   One pic even has the glows as red but that one was indicated as when the station was being constructed.   I have noticed that one of the biggest problems searching for pics of anything B5 related is you end up with a ton of pics from TBP to sort through. 

[wesp5]

Same way you change any other weapon on a ship.  Weapon editor under ship editor in FRED.

I never use FRED but edit the mission files with a text editor. So how would this look there ?

I did some searching and some pics from the show appear to have the yellow while others don't.

I think the yellow look should be removed, I don't think B5 has any other windows in that style!

[Trivial Psychic]

I'm surprised noone has ever tried to add in the Octurion model.  After all, we've had the briefing icon for it in the mod for years.  BTW, there's some really cool models on that page as well, both official, semi and complete fan designs, including one awesome redesign of the Shadow battlecrab.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

I'm surprised noone has ever tried to add in the Octurion model.  After all, we've had the briefing icon for it in the mod for years.  BTW, there's some really cool models on that page as well, both official, semi and complete fan designs, including one awesome redesign of the Shadow battlecrab.

I've tried.  The mesh is corrupted and crashes every modeling program and PCS2 I've tried to import it to.

[Vidmaster]

Indeed some cool models :-)

[FUBAR-BDHR]

I think the yellow look should be removed, I don't think B5 has any other windows in that style!

Well I just rewatched the first episode paying close attention to this area of the station.  Several shots have no lighting whatsoever, 1 shot has them as red, at least 2 shots have them as white, and the last shot has them as yellow.  So there is no consistency whatsoever on the lighting here.  Also on a side note one of the shots only has cobra bay arms instead of 4. 

So this should probably stay but be more white then yellow and a lot less bright.

[The_Force]

The badger's textures are currently mucked up because it used the old Aurora textures.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

The badger's textures are currently mucked up because it used the old Aurora textures.

Thanks for the report.  This hopefully will be an easy fix.   Of course if anyone wants to do new badgers I won't object.

[emi_100]

Of course if anyone wants to do new badgers I won't object.

Well, maybe we can use the HTL Aurora StarFury version for it, and modify it, it almost the same ship.

[emi_100]

Common error:
Heavy Starfury



REAL Badger-class Starfury


(not CGI from the show, but the concept is cannon, design by Tim Earls back on '97 for a B5 tv movie)

I think we have to modify the name on the table.

[Vidmaster]

The B5 wiki confirms this actually. http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/Badger-class_Starfury   Still, Zathras is only there to fix TBP and since TBP treats the "heavy" fury as the badger Zathras must do as well. If we get hold of a good model to replace the current one, we can talk about this issue again.

@The_Force: Thanks for reporting.

[FUBAR-BDHR]

Yea that is something that would break a ton of missions.  So many things are linked to ship names and they are stored in every mission.  Even if we did have the actual Badger we would have to call it something else. 

Back to the yellow glows on B5.  Finally got a good shot of them from the show: 



Also the badger texture issue is fixed and will be in the next testing version.

[emi_100]

If we get hold of a good model to replace the current one, we can talk about this issue again.

Use the same texture as the HTL Starfury, so it can re use the logo textures.

[den5]

I have issue with normal maps for HTL Auroras. They use a normal map textures from old models. Renaming from Z_Advanced to 1_Z_Advanced fix this issue for me.

And NOVA-01a-normal map still based on the old texture.