The Babylon Project 3.2 released!

[Darkblade]

What is the Babylon Project?

The Babylon Project is a group of dedicated individuals who are trying to bring the essence of Babylon 5 space combat to Freespace 2 engine, an award winning space combat simulation from Volition Incorporated. The project was started way back in 1999 and has seen three full releases since then, constantly building up in content and quality.

The Babylon Project uses an improved FreeSpace 2 engine by The Source Code Project. Thanks to the hard work of the coders, we have been able to bring the graphical quality far past that of the original Freespace 2, and close to the modern day standards. The use of modified source code has also allowed us to make the Babylon Project a full stand-alone game; it no longer requires the original Freespace 2. That's right, this is a 100% free of charge game made for the enjoyment of all scifi fans.

What sort of a gameplay does the Babylon Project have?

The Babylon Project is based on Freespace 2, so fast paced action is the keyword here. The controls are easy to learn and intuitive. The best game experience can be archieved with a joystick but you can also play with a mouse and a keyboard. Mission types vary from simple shoot-and-kill to much more complex escort, assault and recon missions with multiple objectives.

What are the system requirements?

Pentium 3 600 MHz or equivalent
256 MB RAM
Microsoft Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
DirectX 8.1 compatible 3D hardware accelerator card with "Hardware Transformation and Lightning" (HT&L) support
DirectX 8.1 compatible 16-bit sound card
750 MB hard drive space
DirectX 8.1 or newer installed

So how do I get to play?

First, you need the Base download. This includes all the necessary files you need to play the game, but no missions or campaigns. All playable content is dowloaded separately and we currently have two campaigns available for your enjoyment:

Raider Wars 2.0

Our current major campaign with 16 playable missions and full voice acting. The year is 2258 and the name of the place is Altair. The Raiders, an organized faction of pirates and smugglers have lately established a strong presence in the Altair system. The Earth Force has decided to launch an offensive and to stop Raider activity once and for all.

Earth-Minbari War 2.0

An old five-mission demo campaign with full voice acting. It lacks some of the more advanced stuff we have in Raider Wars, but if you want to get into a serious dogfight against deadly Nial-fighters and defend Earth against an alien invasion, the campaing is still a lot of fun.

Find out more of our game from our website at http://www.3dactionplanet.com/hlp/hosted/babylon/index.shtml

And of course, some screenshots are in order:

http://n.ethz.ch/student/ebuerli/download/tbp/screenshots/Battlecrab01.jpg

http://n.ethz.ch/student/ebuerli/download/tbp/screenshots/EA_Fleet04.jpg

http://img296.echo.cx/img296/1153/screen15527yp.jpg

http://img296.echo.cx/img296/7691/screen14112ck.jpg

http://img253.echo.cx/img253/5370/screen15674cm.jpg

http://img190.echo.cx/img190/3998/screen15856cs.jpg

http://img190.echo.cx/img190/5729/screen16055iu.jpg

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/6540/screen16747bu.jpg

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/5387/screen17392pq.jpg

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/1483/screen17691jl.jpg

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/1861/screen17120da.jpg

http://www.3dactionplanet.com/hlp/hosted/babylon/img/screenshots/rw01.jpg

http://www.3dactionplanet.com/hlp/hosted/babylon/img/screenshots/rw04.jpg

http://www.3dactionplanet.com/hlp/hosted/babylon/img/screenshots/rw05.jpg

[Van Hamies]

So, is it any good?

[Darkblade]

My opinion may be unjust but if you enjoyed Wing Commander, X-Wing and FreeSpace 2 arcade style rock & roll shoot 'em up space combat simulators then you are going to enjoy our little modification. http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Of course, if you enjoy Babylon 5 then it gives some more feeling to the game.

[DudeMiester]

I don't see the actual Babylon 5 space station in any of those pictures, wtf?

EDIT: Nevermind, there it is on the main page, very nice!

[Jokke_r]

i'v been playing a lot of freespace 2 scp and babylon project lately, both rock but tbp raider wars campaign is really really hard with confusing mission objectives http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif
Earth Minbari War campaign was short but exxtremely cool you really got that feeling like you're up against an unbeatable force and you're up against the wall. rocks. You gotta have a joystick though.

[Darkblade]

Jokke_r said:
i'v been playing a lot of freespace 2 scp and babylon project lately, both rock but tbp raider wars campaign is really really hard with confusing mission objectives http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif




Yeah, our mission design leader thought it would be cool to let the player think by himself how to handle the mission and not guide you by hand.

Even after I tried to make the missions less confusing, it still has some sort of chaos in most of the missions.

Try adjusting the difficulty level on options screen. Hope it helps, otherwise we are forced to make a detailed playthrough guide to Raider Wars. http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Reaper]

Hey, what ever happened to Parallax, the old descent boys, and Volition, the new descent boys? Last time I checked, Parallax was defunct and Volition had made Summoner 2.

[Darkblade]

Reaper said:
Hey, what ever happened to Parallax, the old descent boys, and Volition, the new descent boys? Last time I checked, Parallax was defunct and Volition had made Summoner 2.



Haven't heard of the boys from Parallax in a long time. Volition did The Punisher and is now working on Saint's Row.

Back to the topic, Raider Wars patch 2.01 has been released. It should fix the CTD problems people have had.

http://www.3dactionplanet.com/hlp/hosted/babylon/r3_missions.shtml

[Reaper]

Sorry to derail the thread once again, but I found out that some Parallax employees started up Outrage (which made Descent 3) and that company was closed on March, 2004.

The mod sounds pretty wicked. Oddly enough, Descent is associated with System Shock 2 in my mind and this mod reminds me of Deus Ex. They both seem to be continuations of eachother (DX, SS2; your mod, D3) but Descent has a dark atmosphere, like SS2, and your mod has non-linear aspects to it (if I understood correctly), like DX.

I can't wait until I get Freespace 2.

[Jokke_r]

Eeh this mod has nothing to do with any of the forementioned games, it's Babylon 5!, haven't you seen one of the best Sci-Fi Series of our time? http://forums.3drealms.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif