Some help with a faction set

[Buster's Uncle]

"I took out Gus.  Say my name..."

[Sigma]

I took it as a tattoo or something on first glance -- but given that we're talking the Breaking Bad guy, the bullet thing is unfortunate.  Would adding the jacks and cables help?

Honestly I had a hard time figuring out exactly who I wanted to use for Federov, until I realized I was subconsciously imagining Bryan Cranston the entire time. I'll work on some other options for his headshot. Fortunately I saved a pre-jacks version of the portrait. One that I thought of doing was a sort of Ghost in the Shell look with visible seams to show where his normal skin ends and his synthetic parts begin, but I'm not entirely sure how I'd do that. I don't want him to like a Borg though. I'm trying to go off the original SMAC aesthetic, where the characters looked relatively normal and modern save for some weird clothes occasionally (re: Yang and Zak). I thought the jacks would be a nice, unobtrusive way to show that he's more than just human.

[Buster's Uncle]

Adding metallic edges around the marks might fix it.  Metallic effects aren't hard to do - crank the contrast high and add a little blue tint.

[Geo]

Really, I would put the jacks on the area between the eyes and ears. The forehead is protected by the skull, so 'drilling' holes is way more difficult then the emplacing them in the soft(er) area between ears and eyes.

[Sigma]

I thought about that but the portrait doesn't really have much room in that area to fit the jacks, which is why I think I'm going to have to go with something else, or at least make them look prettier like BU suggested.

The in-universe explanation for the forehead jacks would be that they're for accessing his frontal lobe so he can upload or download data to or from his short-term memory. He'd also have jacks behind his ears for accessing long-term memory and sensory input, and jacks at the back of his neck in standard Matrix/Ghost in the Shell fashion.

[Geo]

How about an external implant in Aki Zeta Five style? You could apply it directly to forehead ( ) and have the jacks ther.

[Sigma]

I'm going to keep Federov's jacks they way they are for now. Meantime, finished base graphics!

Details

[JarlWolf]

Bases look like some scientific observation compound. That or a landed UFO. Not a bad choice.

[Sigma]

Bases look like some scientific observation compound. That or a landed UFO. Not a bad choice.

I thought so. I dressed up the 3 and 4 sizes with secondary structures to make so that the changes are a bit more than just a bigger main building.

Also I finally uploaded completed Textfiles to the first page.

[Geo]

I thought so. I dressed up the 3 and 4 sizes with secondary structures to make so that the changes are a bit more than just a bigger main building.

I love it when someone goes through the effort of adding structures to his bases. 

[Sigma]

Thanks! I did a final test this morning where I booted up SMAC and made sure that the graphics weren't blueboxed or anything, and it all looks fine.

I'm going to work on the Procyon aliens for Green1's AAR next, then start on the rest of the graphics for this set.

[JarlWolf]

I thought so. I dressed up the 3 and 4 sizes with secondary structures to make so that the changes are a bit more than just a bigger main building.

I love it when someone goes through the effort of adding structures to his bases. 

In my personal opinion, a graphics pack with a lack of additional buildings at later levels is just being lazy. Real cities add new facilities and other things, not just merely increase in size.

[Kilkakon]

Agreed. I put a lot of work into adding varying levels to mine... I think I only got lazy with one or two of my factions and only did 2 stages, the rest have 3 or 4.

Still, the current base packs are great for letting people get right into making a faction within a few minutes.

@Sigma Just make sure that your base doesn't get too wide! It can spill out of the diamond hehe. But if you're happy with how it looks ingame then sweet.

[Sigma]

I started work on Graphics for the Sons of the Advent. I have a few candidate headshots for leaders, both of the actor Alexander Siddig. I've attached the one I think I'm going to use. I originally picked a much less Arabian Nights looking one, but it didn't really fit the bill of a religious visionary. I've attached them both though. Thoughts?

[JarlWolf]

I like the second one, but it needs modification: Maybe lowered brightness levels and some cropping. I can do that if you wish.