AdmiralFishface

Hiya, just wanted to drop in and comment on your pic there and maybe about what is wrong with it. You got the rendering and shadow well done to an extent, but you lack in knowledge about anatomy. For quick, good results, go look for source images. Photos. Then paint over them. And I don't mean ctrl-v an imp uniform over it or splashing a Color mode brush over it to make the faces blue or such, but create a new layer and trace the outlines. Get the positions of eyes, nose, hair, and some important anatomical landmarks, and maybe some shadows. Then start painting from those outlines. (Well, other techniques may suit you better, but this is one.) But sometimes even a well-made photo-manip like the ones we've already seen from you work better than painted images (achieving photo-realism is something I'm very far from, too) Now I don't know how much interest you have in art stuff, and I realize this is not an art forum (although you might want to check these out, they're a great place of learning and inspiration), so I'm leaving out the extended critique for now, but if you want, I'll dissect your picture thoroughly later on. Good luck with the project! -- Fishface

OOH, I think I know those! The grey and white ships with the blue and yellow cockpit thingies? And the spacemen that came in white, red and yellow? with the open helmets? I got some from my brother... Those rock! But the early 1990's stuff was cool too. M-Trons, Blacktrons, Space Police, the other Blacktrons, the other Space police... [/nostalgia][/geek]

Whenever I think of this topic, the two Stormies in the Death Star come to mind, who casually chat while on guard. Granted, it's just one line or so, and I won't deny clones the right to chat, but these two somehow don't fit in with my picture of die-hard spartan clone troopers. These, and the one looking after his gunned down companion on the Tantive IV gave me more the impression of humans being under these masks than war machines bred in glass tubes. So I assume that while a large portion of troopers is indeed clones, not all of them are (for whatever reason). But that's just my take on this, and might not impact you others' views.

Has anyone found anything else we could all play?

Well... mine, too! So do we agree?

I'm really hoping the next Batman movie will be good. At least it's not cheery-neon-bright as the last two, but rather dark. If they don't overdo the special effects, it might be something. I've come to like the first X-Men, but the second was just... more of the same. It felt like the expansion to a game; some more features, a few more characters, and another campaign that plays just like the old. Spidey I liked, the first one anyway. Only thing that bugged me was the goblin's costume. Second one was just too cheesy (though Molina as Ock was okay). Sin City is definitely one to keep an eye on. I'd like to read some of the comics before watching it, though.

I was simply assuming that.

And now for something completely different: I just hit 500. Have a nice day.

Speaking of Brad Pitt (I KNOW noone was): Snatch, if nobody mentioned it yet. Very funny movie. "D'y like dags?"

'cause that's one of the features of the game. Even if the famous Bounty Hunters don't manage to caoture Solo, they bring back information about his location, even if the Empire hadn't explored that system yet... So Han is really as dangerous as a traitor, although he's completely loyal... poor him...

Don Mclean - American Pie Need I say more?

Grave of the Fireflies and Princess Mononoke were great, I'll agree. My favourites are Cowboy Bebop (series as well as the movie) and Jin-roh, and Ghost in the Shell is up there among the classics. As for Mangas, I've quite enjoyed those by Rumiko Takahashi, especially the older ones (great humor in there).

Hm, that Warthog looks pretty cool!

Just did this, based on (and shamelessly painted over) a magnificent pencil sketch found on the internet. Meant for a Zsinj card, but I'm thinking it looks a bit too painted. Anyway, clearly not finished, and I'm not sure about the uniform either. What insignia to give him and should I stick with brown? http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v436/RiesstiuIV/zsinj2.jpg

Chris de Burgh - the Revolution (live) Really loud, too.

Makes you wonder why they released the first one at all. From what I've heard, it was nothing but disappointing, and that's not the best starting point for a sequel. Hmm. Actually it doesn't make you wonder at all. It's clear there are enough people buying everything that has Star Wars written on it so LA could get away with any game they want and still make money off it. Well, I don't care, I'm not buying a new PC nor upgrading my old any time soon, so I won't be playing any new games for a long time. I might get the game in a few years for 5€ from a bargain bin...

Anyway, Happy Easter to all of you!

Congrats Mad! + 1 EDIT: And you joined only a week before me

Crew or Personell should definetly be a resource. Food and water could be summed up as Supplies, which are generated automatically on planets (and other colonies) with sufficient infrastructure and are transferred to ships when they get there, or via supply shipments (which could of course be intercepted by the enemy). If supplies run out, repairs slow down and efficiency in battle and morale drop (about morale read below). I'm not sure if that complicates gameplay too much, as you'd have to have an eye on the supply status of all your units all the time. Experience for troops and crews is also a must. EDIT: I'd even like a kill marker for units or the ability to add a tag to units, reading "survived Battle of [location] on [date]" or similar if I want to. I like to have a bit of a relationship with units that accompany me for a long time. Hm, just something to think about. Morale and Loyalty - specifically of military units, but the same system could be used for colonies: Morale: Simply put: How happy are you troops? Are they eager to go into battle or have the horrors of war worn them down? Units with little morale will not behave as well in combat, will not repair ships, structures and machines as efficiently, and may even question whether they should really keep serving you. Lost battles, especially with high losses, news about defeat of allied troops and the lack of supplies will have a bad effect on morale, while victories, or even the survival of a battle against impossible odds, will boost morale. More experienced crews will be more confident and have higher average morale. Having an experienced admiral, or general, or "hero" the soldiers can look up to helps, too. (If we want to, we could even have experienced crews have a morale drop when they are assigned a 'newbie' commander) Loyalty: Normally if morale is high, so is loyalty. However, there's different ways to ensure the loyalty of troops. Fear can be a powerful motivation here. Uprising or mutiny is not an option for men who fear their leaders. (NOTE: This really applies mostly to planets, but it can be used for troops too. It would add a lot to the "Empire" style of game-play to have your cititens calmed down by the military but ready to revolt as soon as you'd show weakness. The same goes for the military: Having a Vader type character would ensure the loyalty of your troops.) If morale drops too much, it affects loyalty (except if the above-mentioned fear factor is in play). If loyalty drops too low, people tend to turn against their leaders and fight for their freedom. Again, this model might involve too much micromanagement. I personally like to have power over as many details as possible, but don't want to be forced to micro. A good AI would be necessary to take care of all the details the player doesn't want to. Specifically, the loyalty part could be scrapped, and a simplified morale system used. But I'd really like to see morale on my troops and starship crews, as well as the enemy's. About colonization of planets: You should be able to have at least Outposts anywhere (even in deep space), and I think any planet, planetoid or moon with the right gravity would be terraformable sometime during the game (and considering the technology we're using later, even the ones with 'wrong' mass could be altered somehow).

Read this. This article has left me drooling over the possibilities of the game.

This could very well be the best game ever produced. I'tll be interesting how it turns out in the end.

"If someone told you that something will be possible at some point in the future, he's probably right. If the same person told you something will never be possible, he's probably wrong." I don't believe in FTL anything right now, but I will when someone proves it's possible. So far, noone has. That does, however, not impact the story. Something completely different: I'd like to connect the stories of the Nomads and Earth. Maybe the Nomads will be willing to engage in peace if Earth has already been found (which happens quite early in the story, it could take place later) when they somehow recognize it as their home planet. They could also have the key to ascendance, some piece of knowledge or technology they found on their voyage. So in order to ascend you need 1) control over Earth or the necessary knowledge (stolen from whoever controls the planet), 2) the Key, which will be only granted to you if you can make peace with the Nomads or manage to get it from them by force (very difficult) or steal it from them (also very difficult). Otherwise you can just wipe out everything and not ascend but still win. The more possibilities to win, the better.

Nice bird you got there, Jahled!

Aye, aye. Louie Austen - More

You can still connect via an IRC client like mIRC and the like. mIRC has a 1.3 mb download, IIRC. Should be more manageable.