When I came up with the idea of launching a site dedicated to this incredible game, I was afraid I would drag myself yet again into another "money making" web site. All I really wanted to do was to run a pure fan site, which would serve the fans of the game.

I contacted Kevin "Arbadacarba" Miller, who had the kick ass content, and we both agreed to keep it as pure as possible. After 6 months (or is it more?), I am happy to say – this is a fan site. Not even a banner, which for me is a step in a new direction.

Since yesterday, when we closed down the site, I have been receiving e-mails from fans, ex-employees, and employees of Yosemite, which all want one thing - that we reopen the site. Everyone requested that now more than ever, we keep the flame of this game burning – so that even though the team has changed, the game will not.

What can I say? I am proud to be part of this community, which not like other gaming communities, is a clever, sharp and warm one. How can we say no, when all everyone wants is to play the game, and have fun.

So the site is open. Do not expect much news and development updates, the team is relocating. But we will do our best to post as much game-related news as possible.

Personally, I wish from all my heart that the team members, who have left the project, will find the strength to go through this hard time. I wish them and their families only the best of luck and success, and I know that here at FirstOnes.com and everywhere else through out the B5 community – they will all be missed!

Yours with a lot of respect,

Lorien newman,

Co-founder
FirstOnes.com

Here are Randy Littlejohn's words on the Yosemite's closing:

• It's still too soon to be able to tell you anything for sure. But here are some things I do know: The team wants to finish the game. We all believe in it. All of the team leads have been asked to continue (including Christy and myself). Havas (our new French owners) apparently wants the game to be finished. They're aware of how popular the show is in Europe. If you want to know about HAVAS I'm sure you'll find them with a little net surfing. If you want to write to someone - write to them. Also you can write to Sierra On-Line Headquarters in Bellevue, WA. Thanks. The problem is keeping the team together. It's not like someone else could pick up the ball and run with it. So that's what we're still trying to work out...keeping the team together. We're not dead yet. But we've taken a good hit and our jump engines are iffy at this point. We've still got our forward guns and a few interceptor batteries working.

And here are a couple of Marc Hudgings' comments:

• I'm not dead yet!, Nor is the game. there's going to be a period here where we are going to be uncertain about the future direction of the project, but we will continue to work on it and will be here.

• I'll probably get in trouble for this.I am not of sound mind right now, I'm rather shocky and confused. If you want to do something to preserve the quality , inegrity and ship date of this game, send a polite e-mail to our CEO, Dave Grenewetzki(Dave.Grenewetzki@sierra.com) or david.grenewezki -not sure which,requesting that the impact to the development team and the development process be minimized as much as possible. The ideal way to do this is to allow us to complete the project before relocating the team to Bellevue, WA. Any other action seriously jeopardizes the status of the team and project.

Remember, if you haven't already, send your name and e-mail to and help convince Sierra of our support in the B5 game.

Yosemite Entertainment has been disbanded by Sierra together with three other of it's sub-studious. Here is what the president of Sierra had to saw (Gamespot):

• "We've decided to pull a number of our smaller operations into our Bellevue headquarters to achieve a critical mass of development and marketing talent into one location," said David Grenewetzki, president of Sierra. "These are moves that we have anticipated for a while, but we've not been able to focus on them due to the divestiture of our company. Integrating our teams to strengthen our brand and build on our online commitment is a strategic move that will help us continue our mission to develop and bring to market the most creative and most technologically advanced products that are fun, innovative, and provide a wide range of appeal."

This will undoubtebly have tremendous impact on B5SCS. I would hope for the game to come out somewhere in 2000 if at all. Here is what Ken Prugh had to say:

• Unfortunately the rumors are true. The oldest PC division of the oldest PC game company is closing it's doors in two weeks.

  Fear not!

  The Babylon 5 Space Combat Game is going to be continued at the Bellvue, Washington division. While it is not as large nor as established as long, I am sure that they will try their hardest to keep the game up to the high standards that have been set.

  I have personally enjoyed meeting you all here on the forum (and some in person). I hope that I will be able to join in on the discussions in the future.

  Good Bye for now...It is time to go beyond the rim.

  Ken Prugh X-Producer Babylon 5 Space Combat Simulator

And Jeff Reitman:

• Unfortunately it is true... A lot of people on the team got offers to go to Seattle and continue work on the project, but several did not. There is no doubt that it will be a disrpution to the project and effect everything that we were working on.

  Hang in there. Once everything settles down we willlet you folks know.

  If any wants to know who is and isn't going, I would refrain from asking... it is a very touchy subject so please be courteous.

  One Disenchanted Developer, Jeff Reitman

And here is a post I am not sure by who (John Walker? Jack Nichols? Marc Hudgings?):

• Well Jeff,

  It has been nice working with you... If I had been offered the opportunity, I still would NOT have gone anyway...

  They probably knew this. ;)

  I've heard that many who were, will decline also...

  This is all I will say at this point as I don't want to get into a sticky situation out here. I hope the newer crew can pull it together and ship this game in the condition we wanted to ship it... but I have my own personal reservations about that when, "Horses are changed in mid stream" (so to speak).

  This will be my last message to the forum...

  Best of luck to everyone, The others call from the Rim to come home...

  -J

There is a petition forming by DEATH from the B5SCS forum:

• E-mail me your name/e-mail address....I will put it together

  my e-mail is on a T3 so I can handle a LOT=)

  gt8878B@prism.gatech.edu

I encourage everyone to send their information and generally be attentive to the forum if you want to save this game. This is one of the dumbest corporate decisions I have ever seen being made as it will disrupt several games being developed (including the much awaited Middle Earth). It is defenite that most crew members will not move to Washington to continue work on the game, and I understand them completely. If this game ever comes out it will probably suffer in quality and be very late. And it especially sad seeing that happen to one of the best and most entuthiastic development teams I have ever encountered, and just a great group of people.

A sad, sad day...

I just got my PC Accelerator magazine and they have a preview of B5SCS in there. It's a fairly positive preview and they don't provide any new information (except those shots of Tracy Scoggins and Jennifer Aniston... Oooh yeah :) ) but here are the 5 questions they asked Marc:

Q: We understand you've included a secret in-game Catfight module between the female characters. Why? A: Everyone loves a good catfight. Duh. Getting the motion-capture down was a bitch, butfixing the sensors in place with a saline paste solution was cool.

Q: Who would win in a fight, the hot commander chick or Babylon 5 creative consultant Harlan Ellison? A: Harlan Ellison, no question. It'd be a massacre. He's a tough sonofabitch.

Q: If players want to, they can go berserk and fire on their own forces. Whatcha gonna do, tough guy? A: Yeah, you can do it. And you're gonna get your ass whooped by every ship in the game.

Q: What's the funniest thing about J. Michale Straczunski? A: (Quietly into reciever) Oh, dude - you don't wanna ask that question.

Q: What in God's name do you do in Oakhurst, California on a Wednesday night? A: Mmm. Well. Uh, that's unprintable. That's... yeah. Yeah. I don't now. [Ed note: This is one of the best answers we've heard to this question]

Jimmy Brown posted a question on the forum asking whether a B5 Diplomacy Simulator is a viable possibility. Here is Randy's reply:

We are (and I am especially because film and theatre are my background and so I like character interaction), cognizant of the fact that Babylon 5 is not about war, but about the effect war has on people. We are aware that the show is about story and character development. And we know that much of the battle in the show is ended by diplomacy, even if our guys are willing to make the sacrifices if necessary.

Nevertheless what (what was then) Sierra On-Line needed was a competitive game in the space/combat genre. And so our mandate was to develop a space/combat game based on the B5 license.

What we have tried to do with this game is to make a kind of hybrid in order to address both the character of the show and the needs of a space/combat game. So we have created a killer combat game that a person can jump into easily and just blow things away if that’s what they want to do. And that'll be fun. But also incorporated into the game is the opportunity to take control of the way in which the universe evolves. And one of the ways to do this is to sometimes NOT shoot, but instead to see what other option is available. There are hard choices woven into the situations that we have created…the kinds of ethical dilemmas that always crop up in times of war. In this way we have tried to capture at least some of what the show is really about.

There is an action/adventure Babylon 5 game in early development here. It’s far too early to be able to tell if it will make it past all of the early development hurdles it must clear in order to stay a viable project. It is my hope that your idea of a diplomacy simulator will at least be a part of it.

Why don’t you write to Susan Frischer, who is writing/designing the next B5 game and let her know what you think: susan.frischer@sierra.com.

Sierra have a brand new site for B5SCS. It's pretty huge with tons of new screenshots and ship information. It looks like it'l take a couple of hours just to go over all of this new information :)

Sierra FX have made public the release dates of their 99-2000 line up. Babylon 5 is scheduled for a September 99 release.

John wrote a large and detailed reply to a few AI questions. It is an intriguing article about balancing the AI:

> How intelligent will the game's AI be?

As good as I have time to make it. :-) The AI will be capable of
playing an entire game against itself with no player involved. It is
not a few simple behaviors which "turn on" when you get close
to its ship. Everything from the freighters to the battle fleets
have a sense of purpose, a personality, and "something to do".

> Will you have to command
> wingmen to help you or will they just come to your aid sometimes?

The ships, squadrons, etc. will all be running the same AI they would
if you weren't there. i.e. they won't treat you (the player) any
different that they would treat another of thier wingmen.

If you ask for help, they will try to help. If your squadron leader
thinks you are in trouble, he/she will send help. If you have a
"wingman" he/she will try to watch your back (and hopefully
you will watch theirs).

If you are in command of the squadron, your pilots will look to you
to coordinate their actions and assign their priorities.

> Do
> the enemy ships have predetermined targets or can they rationalize
> which ships and formations will do the most damage?

The "threat assessment" (sp?) of the enemy ships and groups
is an important part of the "strategic level thinking" of the
AI. Obviously capitol ships and squadron leaders are going to spend
more time thinking about this than fighters, but the capability is
there for everything from a single fighter to a group of capitol
ships.

> I also think it
> would be cool to program komakazi pilots, so you could see sewacide
> runs at other ships or even comming at you, that would add an
> intersting edge to the game.

Although "ramming" is seen in a few episodes, we are not very
big on ramming as a viable tactic. It is a desperate action for
desperate situations. The higher level AI is not interested in
wasting its resources for dramatic effect.

Even now, the Kamakazie tactic is laughable compared to a modern
missile controlled by a modern control system. Remember, the height
of the suiside attack was during WW2 when battleships'
"computers" for their main guns where a clock-like array of
gears, switches, and hand cranks. If you are willing to sacrifice
the pilot, (which today is much more expensive to train than the cost
of an advanced missile guidance system) a general purpose vehicle
won't do much damage. The Kamakazie aircraft were "crammed with
explosives" so it would actually hurt the target. (which made it
fly like a pig.)

Imagine the kind of guidance which will be available in *50* years...
100 years... 200... I doubt that a human pilot would be able to
match the reflexes, precision, or randomness of such a system.

It is actually a hard thing to do to keep the AI from being "too
good". The AI has a precision and speed which the player must
combat with planning and strategy. If the AI is allowed to use all
its tricks, it seems like it "is cheating" when it is
actually just being very precise very quickly.

Obviously if the AI is too hard the game isn't fun. period.
Gameplay and fun are the king of the computer game. No amount of
graphics, sound, or other gimiks can make up for frustraiting game
play. Could I make the AI kick your butt every time. Yes. (no idle
boast) Would it be fun to play? no. Would I get fired? yes. We
would both lose.

If you want to see what I mean, get the Quake 2 "eraser bot"
(I think this is the right one... the one with the settings) and
turn up all its settings to maximum. Start 3 or 4 of those in an
arena. Join the game and try to survive contact with even one of
those bad-boys.
Awesome? yes. Killer? yes. Fun to play? no. You walk into a room
and "balm, blam, blam!" you are dead. You respawn.
"Blam!..." You get the idea...

Hope that helps --

-- John

Thanks to Mr. Morden for asking the questions.