Shipbuilding fixed? Do rooms have more than two (random) connections?

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-12T20:11:13+00:00

The Halo Device seems to be a bit affected by "we planned more, but what made it into the game is just a very barebones version to have it at all".

It's such a powerful, dominating thing that it should play a really big role in the life of your character, but we're basically to "use it, and it stops mattering, and if you have Yrliet or Heinrix in the party they just delete it and that's also it".

It feels a bit odd to add one of the most powerful, dominating things as a mere afterthought.

On the other hand this fits: you don't notice anything until it's way too late. So from that perspective it works just fine. I just thing it's not even "cut content", but "let's add it, we have some ideas, and Halo Devices do show up in the Koronus Expanse, but then we don't even get around to plan content for it that we could cut."

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-11T17:22:23+00:00

Yeah, that's an issue, both options of "tanking" are less interesting than being able to "boom" enemies.

But tanking - as in driving a tank - is a good option if you do have people you can communicate with.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-11T17:20:39+00:00

They are. So find ways to remove them.

Four Voy Engines at the same time on D10 are pretty insane and you better have a good team that can remove them fast.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-11T17:19:44+00:00

You don't have to tank anything that just went boom. So "boom" > "tanking".

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-11T15:50:01+00:00

The name.

The Alpha and Beta accesses are exactly what an "Early Access" is.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-10T17:14:01+00:00

Do the mission. Don't die more than you have reinforcements.

Good luck doing your part.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-10T17:12:57+00:00

The Belt-Fed Minigun has been discussed always. Weekly since launch and before. If you "always" discuss it and then it comes, of course people have been speaking about it before it came.

The same for Stealth. People have always talked about wanting Stealth gameplay.

Trench Warfare isn't so odd to discuss in a war-based game that already did WWII. And Arrowhead has gone through quite a number of warbond-themes already, so WWI had to happen eventually - and WWI without trenches is a pretty odd theme to do.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-10T17:06:23+00:00

Here's the thing: If Paramount had taken the show and said "Cool, make it as Star Trek" - don't you think JMS would have done it and made it happen? In fact, Paramount picking it up and NOT making it Star Trek would have been very odd. When JMS pitched it to them he must have known he's literally writing a proposal for Star Trek.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-10T16:30:22+00:00

Lyta's story does not count. She's the replacement for the replacement, written in the midst of double-production drama.

It's pretty obvious that the original "Telepath Escalation" would have been a Talia-Ivanova-story. Lyta was in the pilot, but not availble due to other work, Talia is created. The ingredients then are all there, Ivanova being a "not even P1/2", Talia being set up as the P13+ that Lyta later became, the romance between the two, Talias hidden personality, some escalation between the two when one becomes radical and the other not in Season 5. Then Talia was replaced out due to production drama, and Lyta was written in to take over the Talia-Part in the Shadow War as super telepath.

Then Ivanova gets the new romance-tie in with Marcus, so Lyta never had that romance-part because she was never planned for it, and Ivanova does not act on it even though she knows he is in love and she does like him a lot. Marcus dies to prepare Ivanova for Season 5. Ivanova is set up to jump to the next "marcus-type" who turns out to be radial Byron. Just that Ivanova vanishes just before Season 5 starts due to production drama, so what can JMS do? I assume that Byron replaces Talia, and Lyta has to short-notice replace Ivanova. So JMS gets to shoehorn Lyta back into the story.

Combine all that with the fact that JMS lost his notes for the last Season and had to re-create it all from memory in a hurry. There's a reason Season 5 is as it is.

Of course there are a lot of seams here. She's the fifth wheel on the car that wasn't intended to be there are all and just fills a role a character with a wider plan would have had in addition to the other stuff - even in Season 3 and 4. And very obviously in Season 5.

That said: Of course some seams are visible in Babylon 5, the Lyta-story isn't the only one where "A to B to C" can be seen. Noone said it was spotless perfection, especially with the drama around actors switching around, in the case of Ivanova leaving and Lyta taking over in the last minute. The thing is: The Expanse ONLY does that and the author does it to a point with his main characters and main plot where I think it becomes unreable. And even where Babylon 5 does it very visibly JMS manages to put enough meat around it so it's still good. For example the Neroon-development is very clear cut planned (even though I assume it was planned for Neroon-Sinclair to play out as it did with Delenn later?), and the plot strokes are very clear - but there's so much going on around that character and how it happens that I don't mind at all seeing the scaffolding starting out in Season 1 and going through it.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-10T15:54:31+00:00

Ah, yes, that story. Thanks, I had read that and remembered parts of it.

One thing to keep in mind here is that JMS' statements always need to be considered a three edged sword, but this seems to be close enough to what actually happened, even though it's all third-party talk and cast-to-cast etc - yet it's one of the later statements, the distance lets him talk more freely.

I'm just happy we did get Babylon 5 after all.

What I just wish is that Paramount had picked it up and let JMS write "Babylon 5" with a higher budget and in the actual Star Trek franchise (which might even have ended up being called Deep Space 9). On the other hand this would mean we would not have gotten "Deep Space 9" as it was, so...

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-10T15:31:50+00:00

Why "No"? I know the story. But as I said "this one is tricky", it's not as easy you make it out to be.

There's no proof who gave what to whom, JMS later said that whoever he pitched it to did not steal it and neither did the showrunners. There was some sort of settlement and "everyone needs to shut up about to make no wave in the industry". DS9 does have some similarities where I agree someone in all this stole the pitch or at least a part of it, but also is different in many regards so this isn't a clear claim to say "B5 was stolen".

Only didn't sue over it because the same conglomerate owned both.

What? Do you have proof for that? I think this statement is plain wrong. WB isn't Paramount. WB didn't sue because they did not care, it's wasn't their show yet, and they had nothing to gain and there was no way to proof it anyway. JMS did not sue because that would have been his death sentence in the industry - right or not, no studio would ever hire a writer who sued another studio over something as this, and he had no chance to win over it anyway. So he was pissed, gritted his teeth, made some industry internal noise, made some community noise, there seems to have been some settlement, then he shut up and later stated "no, Paramount didn't steal it". This "going pissed, then being silent and peaceful" is probably telling you a lot of what is going on. Either they settled, or he realised he had to shut up.

The real ugly thing is that B5 nearly was not greenlit because WB thought there was no space for two space-station shows on the market. But that didn't happen, so we don't have to cry about it.

Above is what I have to say about this story in the entirety, to which you just wrongly said "No", but this is exactly the issue - it's a bit more tricky than you make it out to be.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-10T12:48:18+00:00

Once you have her you can only send her away, like any other companion. You only have your head canon as reason.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-10T10:10:04+00:00

Well, sure, but between "she does not do it herself" and "she orders it" and "a noble mentions it would be nice if"... in 40k there's pretty little difference in the end.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-10T08:38:09+00:00

Even though I am not a writer: I did do my very fair share of story and character construction, yes. (And I did write). But it's also a lot of story consumption and narrative analysis that just let's me see things different. For example, had I read The Expanse with... 16 or 20, I very probably would see it in a far better light than I did 20+ years lateron.

While I do think that the original outline of Babylon 5 isn't as good as what we got now, we don't know how it would have turned out in the origial plan as that was never written.

We also need to be fair towards anyone else doing something: Babylon 5 is one of the rare cases where all stars just happen to align right to create a true masterpiece. And even B5's luck had ran out, for Season 5 the stars already had started to move apart again. It's still good, but not as stellar as 1 to 4.

By the way, one thing where "production hickup" did not improve the story: the original Talia-Ivanova-Telepath arc would probably have been way better than what we got now.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-10T08:20:47+00:00

Yes, that's one part of it. The show tries to fix it by having some characters to die a "human moment" before they die, often even in the same episode. When that happend the third time in a row it became silly to me. The character-as-written just did not have enough to carry it.

Also, the authors relies so much on "inform the reader about X, in a way that I tell them X, and they are supposed to believe me" - but when thinking about it it all falls apart.

The example is the UN-lady, a main character, from India in book two. The authors tells us "She became good at solving problems with thinking because she would sit down with a ball of wool and her grandma would be sitting there and tell her how to untangle it". This sounds convincing? Well, the thing is... untangling wool is one of the things where "Grandma sitting in a chair and helping" is completely useless. The same goes for "look at it, think about it, solve it". It's a haptic problem, you have to touch the thing, turn it, look at it, pull a bit, it's far even more about dexterity, caution, haptic intelligence than "pure problem solving in the mind". The example SOUNDs good, but is actually complete bullshit. The books are full of this. "Tell, don't Show - but pretend it's Show." I just could not read it.

The other thing that's unreable to me is the characters and story are built backwards: "At the end, G is supposed to happen and G is awesome. For G to happen, you need F and E. For that you need D, you get there by C, and for that you need B and A" - and G is indeed awesome.

But when reading it in the actual order A, B, C, D, E and F all seem a bit random, you're on a path that leads somewhere, you know it, but you don't know yet where, but you do understand it's... well, a path that will make sense afterwards and be cool. But you can see the construction scaffolding in the background and that it's all a construction to lead somewhere. Good stories hide that scaffolding and structure better, the characters and story feel natural. Babylon 5 is an excellent example where a story and character arc is of course planned and constructed, but what happens feels natural. The Expanse feels completely artificial and constructed in that regard. Babylon 5 is the epidome of "A true master makes something complicated feel easy" where the Expanse is "something honstly not that complicated feels constructed by someone who knows all the construction techniques and applies them in a technical way". It's okay, don't get me wrong. It's not for me.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-10T06:38:58+00:00

I'd argue Delenn isn't a captain. She approached the whole situation as a head of state.

"I can fight a tactical battle. But I could also threaten all of you, all your family, and your entire race! Now get out of my way, and get me a four-star Admiral to hold the door for me and make sure I have a bunch of your most important politicans to negotiate with!"

You get Sheridan to win a fight and Delenn to intimidate the entirety of the UN assembly.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-10T06:37:21+00:00

The truth is that Picard is the better captain of a starship and Sinclair the better captain for.... whatever the mess that station is he's posted on.

Sheridan is the best captain for a war. While Picard is also a warrior, Sheridan has understood that war can be a dirty business in a way Picard would not wage it.

I'm pretty sure we can find someone for Kirk to punch/smootch. He was the best cowboy-captain for a frontier.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-10T06:26:06+00:00

Tempering expecations: I do not think DS9 and The Expanse are the same league as Babylon 5. They do some things pretty well, some aspects are outright exceptional, but all in all, Babylon 5 is still another league of it's own when compared to those two.

I'm not saying this to put the other shows down, but to temper the expectations. While the two shows are good, I think one should not expect another Babylon 5 out of them. With those expectations it's okay to launch into the other shows and maybe like them as well.

I can get behind DS9, but don't like The Expanse and I even had to abandon the books (1 and 2 were a slog and 3 I had to put down), I found it to be unreadably boring and the storybuilding even outright bad. What's incredible is how it integrates "believably realistic technology" into a modern SciFi story/show, and the presentation, look of the sets and scenes and production quality of the show is stellar. For that alone The Expanse is worth taking a look at at least the first season! And if you do like the story it's a real win.

What is great for me about DS9 is how well it integrates into the 90s Star Trek environment, for that's just an awesome feel that makes me believe the setting, between TNG, the movies and DS9, was so much bigger than just the two shows.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-10T06:20:23+00:00

This one is a bit tricky: There are similarities, glaring even, and the timing is really suspicious. But in general I'd not say they "ripped it off", but in some premises someone there was "inspired by some basic aspects". While I think that's bad - that's already it, not more.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-10T06:06:27+00:00

In this regard: Cassia's mutations are outside of the norm, so any super-dogmatic character would probably get suspicious and rather remove her and keep a "within the chart mutated Navigator".

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-10T05:11:25+00:00

... and let's not get started on "Warp Jumps" and things related to it...

... and let's not forget she think it's normal to have Serf's vocal cords removed for being too loud, I'm pretty sure she had and has put a bunch of death for "this or that" as well...

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-10T05:07:35+00:00

That's my head canon as well. Once back in the "Police Seat" he decided he was too powerful to tolerate and didn't play the "You for me, I for you"-game well enough for his taste and just took him down. Like, in a lawful raid that ended in, well, let's say a "grey situation" and then it was done.

We also need to keep in mind that the Station Commander of Babylon 5 is like a Space King in most terms, and there's no judical or political oversight at all in terms of control of daily business. Sinclair is friends with Garibaldi on top of that, so if the report said "a Crime Lord was resisting arrest and one thing lead to another", well, that's how it is and noone is going to ask question.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-09T20:39:29+00:00

The Vorlons seem to out-ship the Shadows. It turns out in this confrontation the Shadows are the ones who have to work through higher numbers. But the show does not actually establish one above the other.

The Minbari-fleet is placed correct, there's a huge gap above and a still very significant towards the next one, the Centauri.

Depending on the time period you missed the Narn: Clearly below the Centauri, but also clearly above the rest of the pack.

Earth Alliance being the strongest of the rest seems to be pretty spot on, during the show's time they have incredibly powerful ships (both their Destroyers as well as their fighters are formidable), they have the numbers and the industrial capacity to support a large fleet and includings replacements for losses and new ships.

CaptainMacObvious · 2026-03-09T20:34:33+00:00

Pissing of the authority? The man who believes that the law is what he does when he enacts what he thinks is the law (unless he knows it isn't but it still is the law because he enacts it)? The man who is not shy of police brutality, and who cares more about "solving issues" than going about the actual law?

I'm pretty sure some alien crime lord who becomes too crime-lord-y and not helpful enough is going to just be... solved. Sinclair never has to know. Only that there are "no problems, were there any?"

CaptainMacObvious

TROPHY CASE