My new custom faction...the Naboo...and some probs I'm having

  Alpha Centauri Forums
  The Factions
  My new custom faction...the Naboo...and some probs I'm having

profile | register | prefs | faq | search

Author Topic:   My new custom faction...the Naboo...and some probs I'm having

Damion posted 07-04-99 08:18 PM ET
Hi there. I'm a newbie to this forum, and pretty much a newbie to making a faction. But I was bored, and I had a bunch of pics from my Natalie Portman site from Star Wars, and I was playing Alpha Centauri...and things happened =) Right now, I have everything in place, but for some reason, my *.pcx files turn out strange. They look....very weird in the game. Very weird. If I can get that fixed, this faction will be ready to go...after some playtesting. So, anyone have a clue on messed up *.pcx files? They seem normal when I view them...I made them in Photoshop......oh well thanks for reading this.
btw, the Naboo faction looks like it's going to be
+1 MORALE: {People happy to serve the people's cause}
+1 PLANET: {Naboo follow an ecologically-wise path}
EXTRA TALENT: {The people love the Naboo government and their wise queen}
-3 SUPPORT: {Naboo extravagance costs *a lot* to support}
{Free Children's Creche in every base--the Naboo care for their own}
{x2 votes in Council--Queen Amidala has much clout, and is shrewd...}
Hmm that looks kinda too powerful now that I look at it...maybe I'll make that -4 support. Any suggestions? Suggestions on gameplay, and some Naboo cities would be *greatly* appreciated.
Thanks.
agent65 posted 07-05-99 06:32 AM ET
Star Wars factions sounds interesting. Any plans for others?
Maybe a Trade Federation faction... I don't know.
+1 Economy (Federation wealth)
+1 Support (Droid armies)
-2 Morale (Cowardly Federation types/Lousy droids)
Social Speaker posted 07-05-99 05:42 PM ET
In reference to your problem with the in game pics... it could be because you saved them in the wrong format - e.g. RGB color, 256 color etc. Im not sure what the right format is though, so i would recommend you load up one of the original faction pics and compare the settings. Hope that helps.
Damion posted 07-05-99 10:44 PM ET
Hm. I didn't think of a Trade Federation Faction...maybe later. But the main problem is my images--as far as I know, they seem to be in a format identical to the originals. The originals are in 256 color and my pics are in 256 color. It's weird.....if one of you would be willing to try mine out on their systems, I would be eternally grateful....maybe just my system is the problem (though I doubt that).
I'll try to mess around with it too, but if you would be so kind to help me out, mail me at [email protected] . Thanks.
-Damion
http://natalie.schulte.org/
ZyXEL posted 07-09-99 03:23 AM ET
Try to mess with the image size and resolution.
Make an Imperial faction
+5 Police (cruel centralistic type of government)
+3 Effic (same as previous)
-2 Planet (they use and destroy everithing they get, not caring for the planet)
Just a thoughts...
ballpark posted 07-14-99 11:36 AM ET
ZyTel,
Add to that list:
-2 Morale (the peoples issa most unhappy)
Rakeesh posted 07-14-99 11:59 AM ET
I tried asking this once before but I guess everybody hates me or just thinks I'm a moron or something. How do you tell the custom faction files where custom pictures are? Or do you have to replace one of the existing faction's graphics?
Damion posted 07-14-99 01:31 PM ET
Rakeesh, I'll try to answer your question....
A custom faction file consists of at least 4 files. 3 .pcx files and an .ini--at least that. For example, right now, I have naboo.pcx, naboo2.pcx, naboo3.pcx, and naboo.ini. The .pcx files are pictures and the .ini sets all the settings for the faction. You can add mp3s for the faction and crap but that's something else..
Hope I helped.
-Damion
http://natalieportman.schulte.org/
Kaula posted 07-14-99 05:00 PM ET
Hi:
I had the same problems with pics...sometimes it seemed like there were "blobs" on the portraits where pixels had "dropped-out." All I could do was to keep re-doing my cut-and-paste until it came out right. Tried different formats, too...pcx-to-pcx seemed to work the best.
I had grown bored with AC too, but Star Wars got me going again! I made factions for Naboo, Empire, Neimoidians, Hutts and Gungans. I used the Jedi faction I found on the Net. I also created a faction that fit my own personality.
I'm at work now, so I don't have access to the faction details, but I took AC factions and adapted them to some of the Star Wars characters/groups: Neimoidian/Morganite, Empire/Yang, Naboo/Peacekeeper, Gungan/Gaian. Admittedly, they weren't always a good fit, and I had to do quite a bit of modification in that case. I'll probably take some of the good ideas from you all on this thread...Thank you!)
But now I'm back to sleepless nights again!!!
Rakeesh posted 07-14-99 05:21 PM ET
Faction INIs? I though they were just those faction.txt things with those 3 .pcx files... Whats the faction INI made up of?
Damion posted 07-14-99 05:38 PM ET
Kaula: thanks, I think I'll just keep on trying and trying, even tho it's not working for some random reason I dunno. Oh well.
Rakeesh: I meant .txt, not .ini. My bad.

-Damion
"Fac ut vivas."
Dehlan posted 07-14-99 08:21 PM ET
I made a Sith faction. I think its pretty good. I altered the Jedi faction pics off the net. The leader looks like yoda would if he had red eyes, and a black cloak.
Robin le Guetteur posted 07-16-99 08:35 AM ET

About the colour problem, this is the reason:
the 256 colors used in the game are personalized, and you must use these colors to create, convert and save your own files. Instead of using default palette or windows, or another one...
This is one way to use these colors :
Open the file "palette.pcx" (in the root of the smac directory) with photoshop or other graphic application and create a table of color (.ACT file). Select the color map on the top left of the image, and save it as independant file. Be sure to let the original palete color while saving it in 256 colors. Use this ACT file to convert your creation in this particular 256 colours palette.
Note that you can work in millions colours, and after convert the picture in the good palette with this solution.
Another solution, is to use only the colours that are on the palette picture (palette.pcx), and save it directly in personnal palette. In this last case, the inconvenient is that you must use colours in "�-plat".
If necessary, I can give you the ACT file by mail, or post it in my site : Les Guetteurs sur Alpha Centauri / http://home.nordnet.fr/~rpirez/smac/
Hope this mail will give you the right answer...
Rakeesh posted 07-16-99 06:17 PM ET
Well I was right about the pallet thing (score one for my incredable computer instincts), however I'm using 'Picture publisher' (came with my scanner, which is hanging around somewhere in a sock as I recall, DON'T EVER BUY A HAND HELD SCANNER!).. Is there anyway to convert the .PCX file to a .PAL file?
Damion posted 07-16-99 09:49 PM ET
Is there a painless way to convert to the SMAC palette? I tried converting it with Photoshop and now the picture looks like crap....I still have the original though in the (Photoshop?) old palette.....I already have the .ACT file and everything.
Thanks,
-Damion
http://natalie.schulte.org/
Damion posted 07-16-99 10:38 PM ET
I did it!!!
hehe I'm just a lil happy right now...everything's done with my faction. What I did to fix the problem was to go to my photoshop, and crop the upper-center palette in palette.pcx. Then I went to Image/Mode/Color Table and saved my new custom palette as SMAC.act or something like that. For my three existing pics, all I had to do was convert them into RGB and then convert them back to Indexed color, making sure that I converted them to the custom palette that I loaded each time...
Sorry if that didn't make sense, I'm not the best at explaining stuff.
I also have a nice lil sound, I stick this sound in the /voices directory, right? In mp3 format.
One last thing....would anybody be interested in beta-testing this thing? If you are, write me an e-mail. If nobody wants to do it, I'll just submit it to a lot of sites.....thanks and later-

-Damion
[email protected]
http://natalieportman.schulte.org/
Robin le Guetteur posted 07-17-99 07:03 AM ET
This is the text of an answer I have just give by mail...
About programs, I use to use "Photoshop" to open the pcx files and generate
the .ACT file, and "Fire works" to create or convert my files in the good
format, using the ACT files I had generated before (Fireworks is available
on macromedia.com as demo, and a soft version of Photoshop is perhaps on
Adobe.com).
I think you can easily replace these 2 programs by using "Paintshop pro",
which is a shareware program that u can easily find in the web. But I m not
sure about the possibilities allowed with .PCX or .ACT.
If you have problem to open the PCX files, you can try this shareware very
excellent, usually dedicated to manage images bank, but very useful to open
or convert files : Polyview. (http://www.polybytes.com/ ).
I will put soon an .act file, and a bmp version of "palette.pcx" on my site for downloading...
Happy to see that the problem is solved.
Damion posted 07-18-99 12:59 AM ET
Ugh.
This is pissing me off...
I got everything to work. Except one thing. The pink backgrounds. They all still show up. You know, look at the *.pcx files and you'll see that the image is in a pink background that's obviously not supposed to show up in the game....but it shows up in my faction's stuff.
Suggestions anyone? Please?
-Damion
[email protected]
To close this thread, click here (moderator or admin only).


Hop to:

Contact Us | Alpha Centauri Home

Powered by: Ultimate Bulletin Board, Version 5.18
© Madrona Park, Inc., 1998.

Author	Topic: My new custom faction...the Naboo...and some probs I'm having
Damion	posted 07-04-99 08:18 PM ET Hi there. I'm a newbie to this forum, and pretty much a newbie to making a faction. But I was bored, and I had a bunch of pics from my Natalie Portman site from Star Wars, and I was playing Alpha Centauri...and things happened =) Right now, I have everything in place, but for some reason, my .pcx files turn out strange. They look....very weird in the game. Very weird. If I can get that fixed, this faction will be ready to go...after some playtesting. So, anyone have a clue on messed up .pcx files? They seem normal when I view them...I made them in Photoshop......oh well thanks for reading this. btw, the Naboo faction looks like it's going to be +1 MORALE: {People happy to serve the people's cause} +1 PLANET: {Naboo follow an ecologically-wise path} EXTRA TALENT: {The people love the Naboo government and their wise queen} -3 SUPPORT: {Naboo extravagance costs a lot to support} {Free Children's Creche in every base--the Naboo care for their own} {x2 votes in Council--Queen Amidala has much clout, and is shrewd...} Hmm that looks kinda too powerful now that I look at it...maybe I'll make that -4 support. Any suggestions? Suggestions on gameplay, and some Naboo cities would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
agent65	posted 07-05-99 06:32 AM ET Star Wars factions sounds interesting. Any plans for others? Maybe a Trade Federation faction... I don't know. +1 Economy (Federation wealth) +1 Support (Droid armies) -2 Morale (Cowardly Federation types/Lousy droids)
Social Speaker	posted 07-05-99 05:42 PM ET In reference to your problem with the in game pics... it could be because you saved them in the wrong format - e.g. RGB color, 256 color etc. Im not sure what the right format is though, so i would recommend you load up one of the original faction pics and compare the settings. Hope that helps.
Damion	posted 07-05-99 10:44 PM ET Hm. I didn't think of a Trade Federation Faction...maybe later. But the main problem is my images--as far as I know, they seem to be in a format identical to the originals. The originals are in 256 color and my pics are in 256 color. It's weird.....if one of you would be willing to try mine out on their systems, I would be eternally grateful....maybe just my system is the problem (though I doubt that). I'll try to mess around with it too, but if you would be so kind to help me out, mail me at [email protected] . Thanks. -Damion http://natalie.schulte.org/
ZyXEL	posted 07-09-99 03:23 AM ET Try to mess with the image size and resolution. Make an Imperial faction +5 Police (cruel centralistic type of government) +3 Effic (same as previous) -2 Planet (they use and destroy everithing they get, not caring for the planet) Just a thoughts...
ballpark	posted 07-14-99 11:36 AM ET ZyTel, Add to that list: -2 Morale (the peoples issa most unhappy)
Rakeesh	posted 07-14-99 11:59 AM ET I tried asking this once before but I guess everybody hates me or just thinks I'm a moron or something. How do you tell the custom faction files where custom pictures are? Or do you have to replace one of the existing faction's graphics?
Damion	posted 07-14-99 01:31 PM ET Rakeesh, I'll try to answer your question.... A custom faction file consists of at least 4 files. 3 .pcx files and an .ini--at least that. For example, right now, I have naboo.pcx, naboo2.pcx, naboo3.pcx, and naboo.ini. The .pcx files are pictures and the .ini sets all the settings for the faction. You can add mp3s for the faction and crap but that's something else.. Hope I helped. -Damion http://natalieportman.schulte.org/
Kaula	posted 07-14-99 05:00 PM ET Hi: I had the same problems with pics...sometimes it seemed like there were "blobs" on the portraits where pixels had "dropped-out." All I could do was to keep re-doing my cut-and-paste until it came out right. Tried different formats, too...pcx-to-pcx seemed to work the best. I had grown bored with AC too, but Star Wars got me going again! I made factions for Naboo, Empire, Neimoidians, Hutts and Gungans. I used the Jedi faction I found on the Net. I also created a faction that fit my own personality. I'm at work now, so I don't have access to the faction details, but I took AC factions and adapted them to some of the Star Wars characters/groups: Neimoidian/Morganite, Empire/Yang, Naboo/Peacekeeper, Gungan/Gaian. Admittedly, they weren't always a good fit, and I had to do quite a bit of modification in that case. I'll probably take some of the good ideas from you all on this thread...Thank you!) But now I'm back to sleepless nights again!!!
Rakeesh	posted 07-14-99 05:21 PM ET Faction INIs? I though they were just those faction.txt things with those 3 .pcx files... Whats the faction INI made up of?
Damion	posted 07-14-99 05:38 PM ET Kaula: thanks, I think I'll just keep on trying and trying, even tho it's not working for some random reason I dunno. Oh well. Rakeesh: I meant .txt, not .ini. My bad. -Damion "Fac ut vivas."
Dehlan	posted 07-14-99 08:21 PM ET I made a Sith faction. I think its pretty good. I altered the Jedi faction pics off the net. The leader looks like yoda would if he had red eyes, and a black cloak.
Robin le Guetteur	posted 07-16-99 08:35 AM ET About the colour problem, this is the reason: the 256 colors used in the game are personalized, and you must use these colors to create, convert and save your own files. Instead of using default palette or windows, or another one... This is one way to use these colors : Open the file "palette.pcx" (in the root of the smac directory) with photoshop or other graphic application and create a table of color (.ACT file). Select the color map on the top left of the image, and save it as independant file. Be sure to let the original palete color while saving it in 256 colors. Use this ACT file to convert your creation in this particular 256 colours palette. Note that you can work in millions colours, and after convert the picture in the good palette with this solution. Another solution, is to use only the colours that are on the palette picture (palette.pcx), and save it directly in personnal palette. In this last case, the inconvenient is that you must use colours in "�-plat". If necessary, I can give you the ACT file by mail, or post it in my site : Les Guetteurs sur Alpha Centauri / http://home.nordnet.fr/~rpirez/smac/ Hope this mail will give you the right answer...
Rakeesh	posted 07-16-99 06:17 PM ET Well I was right about the pallet thing (score one for my incredable computer instincts), however I'm using 'Picture publisher' (came with my scanner, which is hanging around somewhere in a sock as I recall, DON'T EVER BUY A HAND HELD SCANNER!).. Is there anyway to convert the .PCX file to a .PAL file?
Damion	posted 07-16-99 09:49 PM ET Is there a painless way to convert to the SMAC palette? I tried converting it with Photoshop and now the picture looks like crap....I still have the original though in the (Photoshop?) old palette.....I already have the .ACT file and everything. Thanks, -Damion http://natalie.schulte.org/
Damion	posted 07-16-99 10:38 PM ET I did it!!! hehe I'm just a lil happy right now...everything's done with my faction. What I did to fix the problem was to go to my photoshop, and crop the upper-center palette in palette.pcx. Then I went to Image/Mode/Color Table and saved my new custom palette as SMAC.act or something like that. For my three existing pics, all I had to do was convert them into RGB and then convert them back to Indexed color, making sure that I converted them to the custom palette that I loaded each time... Sorry if that didn't make sense, I'm not the best at explaining stuff. I also have a nice lil sound, I stick this sound in the /voices directory, right? In mp3 format. One last thing....would anybody be interested in beta-testing this thing? If you are, write me an e-mail. If nobody wants to do it, I'll just submit it to a lot of sites.....thanks and later- -Damion [email protected] http://natalieportman.schulte.org/
Robin le Guetteur	posted 07-17-99 07:03 AM ET This is the text of an answer I have just give by mail... About programs, I use to use "Photoshop" to open the pcx files and generate the .ACT file, and "Fire works" to create or convert my files in the good format, using the ACT files I had generated before (Fireworks is available on macromedia.com as demo, and a soft version of Photoshop is perhaps on Adobe.com). I think you can easily replace these 2 programs by using "Paintshop pro", which is a shareware program that u can easily find in the web. But I m not sure about the possibilities allowed with .PCX or .ACT. If you have problem to open the PCX files, you can try this shareware very excellent, usually dedicated to manage images bank, but very useful to open or convert files : Polyview. (http://www.polybytes.com/ ). I will put soon an .act file, and a bmp version of "palette.pcx" on my site for downloading... Happy to see that the problem is solved.
Damion	posted 07-18-99 12:59 AM ET Ugh. This is pissing me off... I got everything to work. Except one thing. The pink backgrounds. They all still show up. You know, look at the *.pcx files and you'll see that the image is in a pink background that's obviously not supposed to show up in the game....but it shows up in my faction's stuff. Suggestions anyone? Please? -Damion [email protected]