Some stuff.

[NewAgeOfPower]

I was invited here by Buster's Uncle, whose graphics I have hijacked for my purposes

Anyways, I'm in the midst of balancing a custom faction and creating a scenario- how does one rename landmarks?

I have some issues with changing base graphics, despite using standard colors or even just cut/pasting other faction graphics in GIMP I'm getting blue/purple/pink backgrounds- incredibly annoying.

I'm guessing I should post up the image- how do I attach it?

[Buster's Uncle]

Right under the composition box for replies, it should say "Attachments and other options" click on that.

See if I've addressed what you want to know about the faction art in the Graphics thread.  I'll see if I can answer more specific questions, should you still need help afterwards.  Hopefully sisko or Kilkakon can help you with the landmarks, though ISTR that it's an easy trick.

[NewAgeOfPower]

Yeah, the map editor is pretty unwieldy compared to the ones for RTSes I normally play. I JUST realized it wasn't part of the map editor- changing names of landmakrs doesn't require the map editor, its part of the Map tool....

Yep. Noticed the attachments. Loading now.

Ever read Revalation Space? I'm going to make Ultras and Demarchists as well. Maybe the Grubs as an alien race.

[Davyboy]

Ever read Revalation Space? I'm going to make Ultras and Demarchists as well. Maybe the Grubs as an alien race.

My Mom has read Revelation Space!!! I'm just saving the ebook series on my tablet for rainy day purposes.

Nice Gimp image too (I MUST practice Gimping more) -- let me know when you have the rest of the faction done and I'll take it for a test toast.

[Buster's Uncle]

Not familiar with Revelation Space, no.

I'd say that's a strong faction graphic yopu've got there - all the elements look good.  If you're having the problem I think you are with the background color, you need to paste all the elements into a copy of blank.pcx.pcx, which you can find in Downloads, and only takes a minute once you know how.  Let me check to see if I've posted the relevant instructions in Graphics...

[Buster's Uncle]

I see that I have not.  I'll try to get something posted in the next day or so, but the short version is 1) Download the blank background .pcx, 2) Select the pink background in your facti0on graphic, 3)Layer>Transparency>Add Alpha Channel, 3) Delete the pink background, leaving the faction graphic elements against a transparency, 4)Select the whole page and copy, 5)Paste into the blank .pcx, 6)Save with a different filename as your faction graphic.

If you meant to say you were getting your bases displaying against a monchrome background box, this will fix it.

[NewAgeOfPower]

I must sound retarded, and I could probably figure this out given an hour of banging my head on the wall, but how do I select the pink background?

[NewAgeOfPower]

Nevermind. I think I've got it.

EDIT: IT WORKS! HOLY DAMSAH, IT WORKS SO WELL!~

[Buster's Uncle]

Hardly retarded.  GIMP/Photoshop and their ilk are tough-to-learn interfaces.

It's the fifth tool in the toolbox, a little hand pointing at a vertical strip of three colors.  That's the Select by Color Tool.  It'll select every pixel in the image of the color you click it on.

Edit: Great news! 

[NewAgeOfPower]

Alright. Back to work for me. I'll be back in a few hours, the Conjoiners are set before they gain the incredibly advanced techs in Revelation Space/Redemption Ark/Absolution Gap but post-Exordium Project

(click to show/hide)

^LEADER: {Nevil Clavain}
^BACKGROUND: {Former Hive-Mind Conscript, Conjoiners}
^AGENDA: {Beginning the Human Singularity}
^TECH: {Industrial Automaton}

^Extra Talent per 4: Conjoiners are far enhanced beyond baseline humans.
^-4 GROWTH: {Incredibly low population counts}
^+2 RESEARCH: {Conjoined minds adept at research}
^+2 INDUSTRY: {Heavily automated society}
^Advanced Multi-functional Prefabicated Base Modules:
^Free Pressure Dome and Robotic Assembly Plant at every base.
^Exordium Project: 5 Free Techs
Prefers Cybernetic. Cannot choose Eudaimonic or Fundementalist.

Overall, I find on Transcend difficulty, it is somewhat less powerful early/mid game than ICS Zak, due to the near-0 population growth (even with golden age and absurdly lucky NUT finds...) and pure ICS is impossible to pull off without the Planetary Transit System.

However, once you have Democracy and Planned running, you'll be able to catch up (against AIs, at least), then have FM/Wealth build up your cash reserves. Plus, starting with Crawlers and 5 techs, taking into account that nutty industry/research bonus means your SSCs are going to be outrageously well fueled and absurdly efficient.

Recommend me a graphics set for the following faction:

(click to show/hide)

Demarchists- Demarchist society, at its heart, is a democratic/anarchy made possible through the miracle of nanotech. Unlike the Conjoiners, who have used this nanotech to advance their neural structures to the brink of posthumanism, the Demarchists all have an internet access/polling system built in. It constantly polls them for opinions on every matter, such as whether the local police should deploy heavy weapons in response to the situation.

++ECONOMY: Demarchist society is incredibly vibrant and wealthy- see 'The Prefect'
++GROWTH: Massive immigration from less advanced human societies.
-EFFICIENCY: Democratic-Anarchy is... not efficient. To say the least.
--POLICE: Citizens can simply vote the police to go away during a riot...
Extra Commerce Income: Demarchist Society is known as the center of human culture. This leads to massive demand for Demarchist artwork, designs, and products.
Prefers Eudaimonic. Cannot choose Police State or Thought Control.

Playtesting indicates that the Demarchists are outrageously good.... that growth and Economy... if you can deal with drones, make some nice trade alliances, and avoid early wars, you'll probably win the game.

That being said, its pretty difficult to win an early war and deal with drones at the same time.

Question: How to disable a faction from building a facility? I know Spartans can't make Skunkworks...

[Buster's Uncle]

Ah, a group mind faction.  Playing vs them would no doubt resemble my life.

If you poke around, you'll find collections posted of each of the elements of a faction graphic - it shouldn't prove tough for you to pick one of each and slap something together.

As far as disabling, I don't know a lot about that end of things...

[NewAgeOfPower]

LOL!

The Conjoiners aren't quite a hive mind - they've learned the hard way hive minds are too predictable.

Anyways, what does the scenario Custom Rules: No Native life do? Because I just created a base with over 200 pollution despite having all the cleanliness facilities... Outrageous. I'm trying to avoid worm-rape, otherwise I'll have to give the faction a huge pile of empath speeders just to compensate.

Yeah, I see you've uploaded quite a bit of stuff here... going to take while to browse through them all.

I liked your ads; "Buster's Uncle Can Help!" on the Hickory Chess club site

[Buster's Uncle]

I assume the scenario Custom Rules: No Native life results in no wild worms...

Yeah, that custom faction page has a million jokes, most of them hidden in hovertext.  I'll be joking in my grave.  It seems like a lot of people turn out to have seen the page when I meet them -- I need to add a link back to here.

[NewAgeOfPower]

Is there a way to give a faction all techs up to a certain point? This is pretty annoying, giving 6 factions all the techs up to  level 4 tech...

[Buster's Uncle]

I'm kinda useless beyond the art/story aspects.  Hopefully somerone more knowlegable will speak up...