Call for Contributors to SMAC mod

[neutral_leader]

I am putting together a SMAC(X) facade for CiV. That is to say, not a total conversion to clone SMAC, or a game different from SMAC and CiV (a la the old Planetfall), but just a conversion of names, sounds, and graphics to set CiV balance and gameplay in the Alpha Centauri universe.

I have all the old SMAC(X) files, and so can do text and sounds myself, but could really use some help with graphics. Although I can do 2D graphics (such as buttons), I'm not very good with them and they take me a long time. I have no hope at all with 3D graphics (though I understand that, in CiV, many people are having trouble with those). That being said, I would love to have some volunteers to work on converting SMAC buttons and what not. I know there are a few other projects around, such as Spatzimaus', that could use these as well, in addition to generic sci-fi mods, so it would help out a lot more people than just me.

Let me know if you'd like to contribute. Priorities right now include 3d art for bases, tile improvements, and units as well as 2D art for faction logos, techs, units, and base facilities.

 

[Spatzimaus]

Just so you know, we can't currently add sounds, or add 3D models for anything other than units (so no improvements, resources, or terrains). And I've already done the conversion of icons for techs and buildings; the units didn't HAVE icons, because of the way they were constructed. So I'm not sure what you're going to accomplish.

 

[neutral_leader]

The work you did on icons is a huge leg up but your mod doesn't use all the technologies, and so leaves some out. Besides that, there will need to be new unit icons (because, as you mention, SMAC didn't have any), in addition to faction logos, social engineering emblems, some other miscellaneous graphics, and some terrain reskinning (even if models aren't possible at this time), so there's still plenty to do.

 

[xxhe]

I might be wrong, but I think the City State Diplomacy Mod changed the unit icons. Here's the link to the mod: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=392543

 

[Spatzimaus]

I might be wrong, but I think the City State Diplomacy Mod changed the unit icons.

Changing unit icons is not the problem. I did that in my own mod, both the base icons (the things that show up in the tech tree and the unit window) as well as the flag icons. My point was that because of SMAC's build-a-unit system, you'd have to create new icons, as there's nothing to port over from SMAC. And unless you can find a way to recreate SMAC's unit system (unlikely without the DLL), you're going to need to start from scratch creating units for your mod, just like I did. So that requires far more design/balance work than anything else; it's pointless to create icons until you've decided exactly what sorts of units you'll include.

And yes, I didn't put all of SMAC's techs and buildings into my icon atlases. But it's literally a ten-minute job to add the rest of them; they're unpacked .pcx files, which can be copied directly into a program like GIMP. So as long as you have the DDS plugin for GIMP, and the appropriate template files, it's a completely trivial process.