More SMAniaC faction makeovers

Oh, I wasn't talking about the size of anybody's posting (manhood), and Darsnan is indeed great.

He just needs to make the great stuff he does easier to find here- and it is a fact that a thread he starts automatically carries more interest to some of y’all old-timers, because you know him and he is so great.

On topic, I think the Genesis Project, Templars and Ghost could use a makeover.
That seems to be a universal consensus.
 
Creator Chaue of the Genesis Project looks cartoonish. Can we find a scientist image?

By the way, I kind of feel sorry for the CFC SMAC regulars. It looks like a hostile takeover (of course, Maniac is a CFC regular because of his work on Planetfall and Petek and I try to troubleshoot problems on both forums).
 
BU: I'll take a look at the 'Strategist.' What I saw I thought looked very good; but I'll have a crack at it over at the AC forums. Attached is what I've been using as the Templar. The picture is from a WOTC wallpaper. It might be better for the Empaths, but I enjoy playing them so much I wanted a bit of eye candy. the Pyramids are obviously yours - I felt they worked quite well for the Templar.

The text file is just a flavor edit I've been using for city names; maybe of more interest to others working on mods.
 

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I, I...

Somebody used one of my pyramid bases. Wow. I didn't think anyone was paying attention. What a wonderful way to start my day; already made.

skree, I'm sincerely flattered. I wish you'd stuck a credit in there documenting your sources in the AC community- I think almost no one ever actually opens .pcx file and sees it, but still.

(I modified a base from one of the Network Node factions, the Isis Cult, BTW, whose author didn’t stick a credit in the .pcx- My idea of scrupulous-about-credit doesn’t always extend to having a peek at associated text files when I’m looting a graphic- I only just now had a peek, months later, and it does seem to be NN’s work, judging from the copyright notice.)

And besides, you've done something to be proud of, and should "sign" it. People, this is a fine job he's done. It's nothing I see us using for SMAniac, but the portrait choice is pleasant to look at, about the right level of realism, and scan lined. And replacing the bases is a good idea; the Templar bases are cute, thematically, but too small-looking.

I like your base-name list. That’s something there can always be more of, and people frequently don’t bother. When I was editing splinter faction text files for Darsnan, I made a point of changing the names of the founding-headquarters bases, as the minimum that should be done in such cases. This is a lovely resource.

Finally, like I said to Darsnan, it’s time to get your own place. Mommy loves you and will comment there, but you’re not getting as much attention as you deserve, I’d guess, burying your fine work in this long thread. You could start a thread with a title encouraging others to post their efforts if you liked. I would totally hang out there, and might post factions should I do anything miscellaneous anytime soon.
 
Creator Chaue of the Genesis Project looks cartoonish. Can we find a scientist image?
Flip back a page or two to see what Mniac has chosen.

By the way, I kind of feel sorry for the CFC SMAC regulars. It looks like a hostile takeover (of course, Maniac is a CFC regular because of his work on Planetfall and Petek and I try to troubleshoot problems on both forums).
I hope they take my view that we're all AC-heads and all in it together. SMAC(X) forums at both sites combined weren't active enough to entertain me long enough yesterday, and neither is gone dead, but still.
 
Another picture I like is this one:



Looks rather young for a faction leader (reason why I prefer the untouched Elevea), but it could make sense for the Empaths or Genesis. With the Empaths psi potential could be more important than age. As for the Genesis, their leaders could actually be rather old - you just wouldn't notice because of the frequent rejuvenation tank visits.

Re Genesis, do you mean this one?

I was thinking more along the lines of Madame Curie.
 
Yes, that one.

Maniac? Even if we stay white, we could look for an older lady in a lab coat. And someone more obviously ethic could be made albino or something should we choose. I can process photos to make them look like paintings. And not least, going another way would remove potential to offend Linda...
 
More of our off-topic fun....

Maniac, I drew in more wrist, but left the hands floating in mid-air, as that's sorta what the head is doing, too. Drawing them to the edge of the panel would be nothing to me, a matter of 30 seconds or so.

This was easy, and I think it looks great, but I'd like the opinion of people who can still see- an non-trivial problem for an artist to cope with.

I'll tackle the 64x64 version when I better understand what you're asking for.

Been having a life this week?
 

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SMAC(X) forums at both sites combined weren't active enough to entertain me long enough yesterday, and neither is gone dead, but still.

You should have seen it a year ago. I (ACDG5) was 90% of the 'poly general forum and there were only a couple of active MP threads. The Creation forum was dead.

I think it is great that you are giving the SMAniaC factions a makeover. Eye candy may be disparaged but it contributes to the atmosphere.

Maniac made a great contribution with SMAniaC. If he is doing revisions (hint), I'd suggest changing those conventional missiles from psi attack to strength 6 conventional.

I wish I had time to contribute to this thread, but I haven't been able to tackle ACDG6 for the last few weeks.

I was invited by some players to CMN. And I have a new game to CMN.

Buster's Uncle, keep up the good work. You've sparked two forums!
 
Maniac, you’ve got to have a look at those links- the first one isn’t bad at all; she’s Japanese, I think, and I could loose the watermark- ditto, or crop-out, for the plant. Only downside I see is the smile….

I agree the smile is a big downside. No other faction has a leader smiling.

We should revisit this one with a black person in mind…

I assume the nationality of the Unity crew would be roughly proportionate to how much their countries are contributing to the project. It wouldn't be a representative sample of the Earth's population.

As a consequence I'd say black people are already over-represented on the list of faction leaders, and that it is perfectly realistic for 50%+ percent of the leaders to be western. If non-western leaders need to be added, I'd say they should be Indian, Chinese, or Japanese, based on those countries' economic weight

Easiest, I could draw in more of the hands, I think. I don’t know if I know how the opaque thing works- if you mean blurred, and pixels increasingly dropping out towards the edge, I probably could.

Thanks for the icon. I'll further process it and put it in Civ4, and take a screenshot to show what I mean.

Weeeak. A model posing for a glamour shot never dyes her hair? And I can fix that more easily than most things…
...
Maniac? Even if we stay white, we could look for an older lady in a lab coat. And someone more obviously ethic could be made albino or something should we choose. I can process photos to make them look like paintings. And not least, going another way would remove potential to offend Linda...

I don't play SMAniaC anymore. So as long as you can get one person other than yourself to say that your new portrait is better than the old, I'm fine with whatever you do, and will include it a new SMAniaC download. :)

Maniac made a great contribution with SMAniaC. If he is doing revisions (hint), I'd suggest changing those conventional missiles from psi attack to strength 6 conventional.

Same here. If you can get another SMAniaC player to agree with rule changes, I'll make the changes while I'm uploading a new SMAniaC version anyway.
 
I don't play SMAniaC anymore. So as long as you can get one person other than yourself to say that your new portrait is better than the old, I'm fine with whatever you do, and will include it a new SMAniaC download.

I'll have to think about that- I'd hate to do that much work on spec, depending on someone bothering to post an opinion. (Shrugs) If I see something that inspires me, sure- I mean, if vyeh or someone pointed me at an image I wanted to work over, then I'm sure she wouldn't remain unemployed for long, no matter what happened...

Anyone?
 
Well I'm just saying it, because with N*matt I had a personal interest in that it was a portrait I'd like to use in Planetfall too. The "scientist with a big smile" on the other hand, I would put in SMAniaC if SMAniaC players wanted me to, but I would never use the portrait in Planetfall.

Anyway, it's guaranteed that the proposed Shadow Ghost leader portrait with any modifications you want, will be better than the current Delan, so any effort on that would surely not be wasted.
 
I PM'd Hydro the following message:

"Hydro

See this CFC post.

In particular, Maniac says:

"If you can get another SMAniaC player to agree with rule changes, I'll make the changes while I'm uploading a new SMAniaC version anyway."

This issue came up playing against the Ghost in ACDG6. The conventional missiles are psi, although the documentation say they attack with strength 6. In scenario editor testing, I discovered that the putting psi on conventional payloads does not mean they attack armor 3 ships at 1-1 (after adjusting for morale), but at 1-3 (armor is taken into account; a bug).

So I stopped worrying about those missiles. I think that it would make more sense if the conventional payload attack at conventional strength 6 as the documentation says (in SMAX they attack at strength 12).

Sure the missiles come early in SMAniaC, but since the units are expended, I think it would be OK. If it attacked a base, I think the defender would be knocked out and every other unit in the base would suffer collateral damage.

Please reply in the thread I referenced. Thanks."
 
I'll have to think about that- I'd hate to do that much work on spec, depending on someone bothering to post an opinion. (Shrugs) If I see something that inspires me, sure- I mean, if vyeh or someone pointed me at an image I wanted to work over, then I'm sure she wouldn't remain unemployed for long, no matter what happened...

Anyone?

If you want my opinion on whether a draft image is better than the current SMAniaC image, I can provide that. (Although it would help if there was a special thread in 'poly AC, devoted exclusively to that, e.g SMAniaC image polls).
 
More edits to the Templar version I threw together; just water on the bases. Sources added.

BU: Here's a go at the Strategist file I found. If you send me the original I can do more edits with the pipes I added to the sides of the base. Otherwise you'll notice I added shadows and redid the water. I could cut the pipes out entirely; again I need the original you posted. For the life of me I can't seem to find it.
 

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