Reskining my faction in LE, thought would be fun discussion

[Kilkakon]

Hi there guys,

As I'm nearly the release of my C&C mod, I've had a look over Lost Eden and have decided it would be nice to leave available on the internet even if it never really took off. Towards this end I would like to replace myself in the mod with a new character for personal reasons. As new factions are always fun to talk about, I thought why not post it here.

The current version of the faction is called "The Realm of Light" and has the name "Brother-General Tristan" as its leader. They have Christianity as their agenda, +25% attack, -1 growth, -1 police, +1 talent per fourth citizens. Here's their cities/current logo:


My new vision for the faction would be something inspired by Maltese Knights/Knights Hospitaller from the Medieval times. I'd like to keep the faction balance as is as it would save me from having to rebalance the thing and same for the name as all the voice samples have already been recorded (hell, I might get the others done this break as it would be a nice thing to polish off).

I'm really stuck on what to call the guys. I would like to sneak Knight in there somewhere if possible.

Brotherhood of Holy Light?
Holy Knights?
Neo Malta?
Knights of Knightly Knighthood
God's Knights?

Should I stick with the chapels or move to something more castley? What about the logo?

Open to discussion

[vonbach]

How about the New Templars? I actually was thinking of a faction along similar lines but never got around to finishing the graphics for it. How about the Sword Brethren? The Knights of the Covenant?

Mine was something along the line of +2 effic +2 morale -2 planet immune to mind control and unable to use green economics.

[Kilkakon]

Thanks for the input Von Bach,

Knights of the Covenant might work, although I'd prefer a more New Testament flavour to it. I had the thought of Inquisition but that carries a lot of heavy overtones of torture and lawful neutral behaviour.

I've figured out which species I'll use for the leader at least I think a Buizel will fill the role perfectly.

[Kilkakon]

Having thought about this a bit more, I think I might go with a variation on your suggestion Von Bach. I like Knights of the Cross. Still has that knightly tone but keeps the new testament flavour in there.

In that case, does the whole white chapel structure fit that name enough? Or something more castley? I am not sure off the top of my head what castle graphics would fit, seeing as Cyndatech already have a dark castle look and Vixen have a more pale concrete structure setup (all of the game's graphics can be seen below, overgrown lodge and castle are not currently in use, starlost by a custom faction not in the original 14). Perhaps another attempt at ripping castle might work, this is too low quality and a bit... red. Could take a page out of the abandoned Strategist faction and have chess motifs going on.


What about logo? A cross might be a bit... obvious?

[ComradeCrimson]

I really like the look of that arena sprite.

As for what is fitting most to this faction;the arena possibly or the shrine. Maybe a combination of the two? Splice the stone structure from the shrine set and put it inside the arena to make a new stone structure? Could be cool.

[Yitzi]

I really like the look of that arena sprite.

Several of those sprites (including that one) are from HOMM 3.

[Kilkakon]

Yup! To state my point more clearly, everything in that pcx is already ingame. I'd rather find something new that can work well for some knights that doesn't look too similar to the above. Sound good?

Perhaps Spanish architecture might be fun. These are inspired a bit by Knights Hospitallier after all who were all camped out on Malta.

[ComradeCrimson]

Yup! To state my point more clearly, everything in that pcx is already ingame. I'd rather find something new that can work well for some knights that doesn't look too similar to the above. Sound good?

Perhaps Spanish architecture might be fun. These are inspired a bit by Knights Hospitallier after all who were all camped out on Malta.

Perhaps something reminiscent of crusader castles, something almost biblical looking? I might have what you are looking for.



How about this? I crafted this one myself.

[Kilkakon]

Crusader Castles are a fun idea yeah That palette tone might be a little too similar to the presidental/arena ones, so I might go a bit less saturated, but that's the sort of idea I had.

That particular example is looking a little... flat to me, 2D, if that makes sense. Thanks for having a crack though if you did that just for me!

[ComradeCrimson]

Crusader Castles are a fun idea yeah That palette tone might be a little too similar to the presidental/arena ones, so I might go a bit less saturated, but that's the sort of idea I had.

That particular example is looking a little... flat to me, 2D, if that makes sense. Thanks for having a crack though if you did that just for me!

Yeah, did it a tad quickly, but it could perhaps be improved and made more 3 dimensional; after all that was made from scratch and it's the first iteration. I think the key would likely be some focus on the shading perhaps, or revision of the angle were viewing it from.

[Kilkakon]

Yeah! I think shading is the main culprit in that particular example. Perhaps a tad more on the details side of things.

I also like to add/take off bits of the building when it changes in size, as well as scaling. Makes it look a lot more authentic in my eyes.

Cheers for sharing some of your work though. I still loved one of those TS buildings you showed when you first surfaced. Don't feel like you have to go to any special trouble for me though, I am a capable spriter myself, just enjoying throwing around ideas

[Kilkakon]

Did a bit more on this today. Thought I'd share. I took the Hill Fort from HoMM3 and did some recolours and tweaks to get this.

Not sure on what would make a good faction icon. Something knightly. I guess if I take the boring, predictable route, a cross works.

[Kilkakon]

Whoops. Made the logo, but then made it too bright so it doesn't look very good ingame I like the idea of it though, it's a "cross fluery" which is a cross combined with a fleur-de-lis.

Hope you people find it interesting. Thought I'd share as BU loves activity

[Buster's Uncle]

You said on Skype you made something that didn't reduce well for the logo - since that Maltese cross is pretty cute, I demand you show us the big version...

[Kilkakon]

Such demands! I must give in to moderator actions