OK, back from a little compi-tech induced absence...
1. The Sharlin. Where are they getting the 18 fusion cannon? In the two seasons I have (3+4) I've never seen it fire anything except single green beams. I could live with the 4 Neutron Lasers that Mongoose gives it, but I don't think anything else should be there.
Oh, as others pointed out, the FC's are there. Short green beams from the "small barrels" in the side-mounted, teardrop-shaped fins and in the bottom wings killing fighters left and right in the show. Stands to reason that every gun-barrelly thingie of the same size on the sharlin is a FC too - you easily get a lot when you do that math (a good show-CGI derived picture for barrel-counters can be found in the otherwise quite questionable "B5 Security Manual", p.97)
The NL's are the sustained green beams that usually come from the nose-mounted "big barrels" (and since the two big barrels on the bottom fins and the two biggest rear pointing barrels are the same size, it's logical that they too fire the sustained green NL beam, even if I can't recall ever seeing them firing)
2. G'Quan, Vorchan, Sunhawk, Vree ships...
My problem here is that all these ships have some "extras" thrown in besides their main weapon. In the two seasons I have, all of these ships besides the Vorchan (doesn't appear) are shown firing a single type of weapon. Where are they getting all the others? My guess is that the B5Wars game added more weapons because a wargame where each ship only had one weapon would be a little boring. Mongoose must have followed their example. But I would rather have the ships be accurate to the show for RPG purposes. The Sunhawk may be debatable, as it has several visible turret-looking things, but in the show it always fires a yellow beam. Thoughts?
G'Quan:
Seen in S-2:
- Red lasers from the nose ("And now for a word...", "the long, twilight Struggle") - The Heavy Laser Cannons in the game(s)
- White "Energy Mines" from the nose ("the long, twilight Struggle")- same in the game(s)
- Red pulses from the main ship body ("And now for a word...") - the Twin Arrays and Light Pulse Cannons in the game(s)
Vorchan:
Seen in S-1 and S-2:
- Orange tear-shaped pulses fired from the nose, usually in groups of three or four, usable against big ships and fighters. ("In the Beginning", "The Coming of Shadows", "Acts of Sacrifice") In ItB these were enough to kill a G'Quan (though I'm assuming that because the G'Quan was immobile and didn't have it's defenses up, the Centauri were able to use pin-point targeting to hit something Really vital like the reactor, something that couldn't happen in a normal battle where your opponent is moving and using his electronics to fog your targeting sensors) - Plasma Accelerator in the game(s).
Seen in S-5:
- Yellow "energy bolt"-shaped pulses fired from the top/bottom twin-barrel turrets, nasty against fighters and big ships. Can also intercept enemy missiles. ("And All my Dreams, Torn Asunder", "Movements of Fire and Shadow") - Twin Particle Array (or Heavy Array on the Demos) in the game(s).
- "seeker mines" launched (or more fitting "released" as they accelerated by themselves) from a hatch on the bottom side of the nose. ("And All my Dreams, Torn Asunder") - Ballistic Torpedo (on the Demos) in B5W.
Seen in ItB:
- Missile-like projectiles launched from the wings. ("In the Beginning") - Not recognized by any game... yet.
Sunhawk:
Seen in S-3 and S-4:
- Yellow beam from the nose ("Shadow Dancing") - Particle Cutter in the game(s)
Seen in S-5:
- Externally mounted Missiles, seemingly good for one volley only ("And All my Dreams, Torn Asunder") - not recognized for most sunhawks, only one AoG variant replaces it's wing guns with missile launchers.
- Yellow pulses from the wings ("And All my Dreams, Torn Asunder") - Particle Blasters in the game(s).
Seen on the show CGI mesh:
- Three small gun barrels left, right and below the nose - Standard Particle Beams in the game(s).
Vree Xorr Saucer:
Seen in S-1:
- Three big twin-barrel weapons, two above and one below in obvious 360° turret mounts ("Deathwalker") - Antimatter Cannons.
- Twelve small gun barrels built into the top hull in "clock"-positions ("Deathwalker") - Antiproton Guns (obviously several of these barrels were grouped together in one game-mechanics system, as was done with the EA Interceptors according to AoG)
Vree Xill Saucer:
Seen in S-3 and S-4:
- Big, Bad "Rain of green energy bolts" weapon firing "downward" from the bottom saucer half. ("Shadow Dancing", "Into the Fire") - Antimatter Shredder.
And it would be logical to assume, as the game designers must have done, that the ship would also have a ring of smaller defensive guns like the Xorr, only better camoflaged...
See how the game stats came to be? As outlined, most are pretty accurate; especially when there's no show scenes to generate conflicting data as happens with the Hyperion.
Erm, the Sunhawk is never seen firing during the show. Ever. The Drazi ship we do see a whole lot of during the series is the Warbird (it has a cowled engine but mostly looks the same). Now clearly, the gun mounts on the Warbird which all seem to fire beams of the same colour are of different sizes which wouldn't make them a single weapon type, which is fine given they are all given as particle weapons.
Have you ever compared the weapons suites to the show evidence? See above... the AoG "Sunhawk" has the P-Cutter and P-Blaster, yet the "cowled-engine Drazi Hull" that is seen firing in the show, shoots a yellow
beam from the nose and
pulses from the wing guns, while the AoG Warbird has a P-Repeater in the nose (that would be seen firing pulses if it would fire) and P-Cannons (that would fire raking beams) in the wings.
Clearly something here doesn't match...
Personally for my own games I assume that both hulls are "Sunhawks", and both have the P-Cutter/P-Blaster weapons suite (beam from the nose and pulses from the wings), just that older model sunhawks have an uncovered engine, a design flaw that has been corrected with add-on engine plating after loosing too many of them to enemy lucky shots that detonated their engine - and that your honor is why all Darzi "Sunhawk type hulls" we see after S-1 have the engine cowling. Hmmm... maybe some day this explenation will find it's way into some official product too... I'd be happy to donate it to the "fix B5 confusion fond" :wink:

:lol:
And the Primus... but then it's Battle Lasers are the result of Babylonian's insistence that, that was what they were (depsite the fact they are never fired in the series for some reason...)
Yup. And the guys at Babylonian Productions also had the CGI to prove it - thier Primus mesh did have two barrels in it's "wings" that were never seen firing in the show... actually AoG hadled that very well, while I still dislike the fact that in the Mongoose game the BL's are among the weakest of the "big laser guns", when we all always hear how the centauri are older then all the "newcomer races" like the EA or most of the League... doesn't feel like it with that kind of tech...
If you limit things to only what is demonstrated to have fired in the series you're into a world of pain... B4 is unarmed (depsite the fact it is said to be the most heavily armed of the Babylon stations), the Warlock is armed only with missiles, the Xorr is unarmed, as is the Sunhawk, Ipsha etc...
Well written.
A Successful way to do it is first looking at the show, then noting down every piece of data you get for the ship you're working on (and that means both what it is seen firing, and what on it looks like a weapon even if it never fires in the show), then go through all comparable ships to get a "feel" how much hardware fits into a hull of that class, and then think logically and extrapolate what's missing in your game incarnation. Then check it with other designers and game testers, in case you got caught in a personal "Übership" wet-dream (like Tim Earls with his "Official Warlock weapon list", and many B5W "homebrew" ships floating around on the net - some are Really bad, packing a small fleets firepower in an ludicrously small hull...)
On the subject on the Sharlin not having turrets and being able to fire from anywhere, I would like to throw this in.
Well, no need to throw anything in. We can see the Sharlin has gun barrels, and we can see that it can fire it's beams at extreme angles from those barrels. I guess that means they have a high enough tech to generate some kind of "energy lens system" at the tip of their gun barrel that allows them to re-direct the beam from "straight ahead" to whjerever they want it to go, without having to move the whole barrel (as is done in a turret arrangement). Workable for pure energy weapons I suppose... The lower tech races, or those who prefer guns that shoot more or less material projectiles (from railgun rounds to plasma bolts - these are still matter, if very hot and very fast travelling matter) will still have to use turrets...
I can imagine, and offer my sympathies!
At some point, we will collate all the ship info we have accumulated, have a chat with JMS, and produce a 'definitive' B5 tech guide - maybe in time for a second edition RPG (so it is quite a ways off). For now, we are just trying to get as close to all source material as possible, without tripping up on too many contradictions - and in this, B5 Wars has proved both a blessing and a curse!
Well, I really do hope that one day you will get to make a second edition, and use that to officially change the BG to excise all these errors and inconsistencies. I for one will keep posting things that annoy me, and ideas how they could be fixed (see Sunhawk/Warbird explenation above), and hope that if you do get to that point, you'll remember and incorporate them!