Elements of a Faction Graphic
1.) The transparent background color. For SMAC (Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri), it is pink, and for SMAX (Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire[X]), purple - both work in both versions. I'd rather look at the purple, but that's up to you.
2.) The base shadow. This is a semi-transparent color that displays in the game as a darkened shadow area. SMAC shadows are tan, SMAX jet black - incidentally, you want to be careful to avoid absolute black and the particular shades the program uses for transparency effects.
3.) The stage one land base. This is where you start in the game, unless you're playing an aquatic faction.
4.) Stage two land base. As you build facilities and population, the base grows to reflect it.
5.) Stage three land base.
6.) Stage four land base; full size, and the ultimate stage.
7.) Land bases with perimeter defenses.
8.) Land bases with tachyon fields.
9.) Sea bases. Most need a platform.
10.) Sea bases with perimeter defenses.
11.) Sea bases with tachyon fields.
12.) The faction's logo as it displays in the Planetary Council screen. The lower example is the default, and the upper shows when the faction is selected.
13.) Diplomacy logo. It displays to the other factions when you talk to them one-on-one over the commlink, just as their diplomacy logo does for you.
14.) Report logo - it displays on the left in the F4 and other report screens.
15.) Small Report Logos. This is what displays in the report screens for other factions. To maintain stylistic consistency with the official factions, it is important that you match the dim blue-green color of the top, at-rest, logo.
16.) The Datalinks leader portrait. The leaderhead is important to establish the personality of the faction, the storytelling elements being what make SMACX so special, and what an art modder specializes in. As with the Small Report Logo, to maintain stylistic consistency with the official factions, it is important that you include the scanlines, or your factions won’t fit in with the Firaxis ones or the custom factions others made. The scanlines, of course, represent the low technology everyone starts with before they get the rebuilding of civilization well underway.
17.) Small Council leaderhead. This is what displays in the Planetary Council screen when you’re not planetary governor.
18.) Big Council leaderhead. This is what displays in the Planetary Council screen when you are governor.
19.) Diplomacy leaderhead. What other leaders see when they talk to you one-on-one.
20.) Diplomacy landscape. Displays in the lower right corner during diplomacy.
21.) Faction colors. Unneeded in SMAC, but please don’t leave this out just because you don’t have Xfire.
22.) Sign your work here. It’s a very good idea to put credits in the empty space of the .pcx - fan artists repurpose each other’s work all the time, and sometimes credits in the text files get overlooked.
