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ScottyP526
ScottyP526
Join Date 02/2008
0

This game deserves better player portraits/avatars whatever

The existing ones are beneath the quality of the game graphics

February 29, 2008 12:40:18 PM from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

The portraits (avatars?) provided in the game to represent you and the AI players are pretty rough.  They look like they were drawn by the same guy that did them for Galactic Civilizations II, in which the portraits were also pretty weak and surprisingly amateurish.  Better than I could do of course, but not a whole lot better.

I hope the artist is not the chief designer's middle-schooler son or something.  I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but these portraits are not up to the quality of the game graphics.  They should at least supplement these existing ones with some others done in an entirely different style.  

Go to the local book store and read the artist's name off of any decent sci-fi paperback.  Those are all much, much better.  With all the 100,000 copies sold they could pay one of those guys to crank out a half dozen headshots of people and aliens. 

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ScottyP526
Hollow Man
Join Date 03/2006
+14
Reply #1 February 29, 2008 12:44:50 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Or they could use the money to pay the staff.

I would like to see them animated (which they did for GalCiv2), but otherwise they get the job done.

-HM
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ScottyP526
Fishbreath
Join Date 02/2007
+7
Reply #2 February 29, 2008 12:52:28 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
...I really like the style the player portraits are done in.
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ScottyP526
Spartan
Join Date 03/2006
+172
Reply #3 February 29, 2008 1:01:20 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
They have to leave us modders some areas to improve on. Seriously one mans trash is another mans treasure.

More seriously, I would have like for more zippy graphics but the bottom line is that the player portraits are a very minor aspect of the game. So when one is allocating resources such as limited man hours on testing, coding, graphics -etc.. and one has a very small production team what should they focus on? I'm sure the ship graphics where a much higher priority.

I know that is not what you want to hear but it is the way it works. Everything in life is a trade off. This is especially so in the business world. The idea is to maximize your strengths and minimize your weaknesses.

I'm sure the developers figured that game play was a much higher priority then LoTR type of graphics. Then there is always the dimension that they designed this to play well on low end systems for additional justification for not having super killer graphics.
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ScottyP526
Misaniovent
Join Date 06/2006
+5
Reply #4 February 29, 2008 1:18:09 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Personally, I really like them a lot. The style is really standardized, but I think many of them are pretty great.
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ScottyP526
Bomthret
Join Date 02/2008
0
Reply #5 February 29, 2008 1:18:21 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
I think the portraits are good enough considering you rarely see them that much anyway. I would like to be able to pick each race individually and not in the 3 pack system currently employed though.
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ScottyP526
PurplePaladin
Join Date 02/2008
+35
Reply #6 March 1, 2008 5:44:57 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
I was very dispointed with the portraits too. Even my friends new to the game, that's the first thing they said when we started our first game; the lack of pictures to choose from and the the below average artwork of them. And the end-game finger-painting of a picture that comes up durring the victory screen is a big letdown too. (maybe another topic, but after untold hours of play, the game just ends suddenly in one second, jumping to that victory screen, not much of a payoff for all that work).


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ScottyP526
Spartan
Join Date 03/2006
+172
Reply #7 March 1, 2008 8:11:26 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Lets hope that in the future there will be victory and faction video developed within the community or by the devs proper. Again SD/IC have made no secret of their focus on older system playability as well as game mechanics and not fluff-n-stuff. Food for thought...
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ScottyP526
Advalary
Join Date 10/2006
+3
Reply #8 March 1, 2008 8:49:39 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
I too like the style of the portraits. Several of these pictures have been around since before the beta. I however, have never seen the victory screen, only the defeat one (when I surrendered).
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ScottyP526
ScottyP526
Join Date 02/2008
0
Reply #9 March 2, 2008 2:14:35 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
I just thought it was curious. I really liked GAL CIV II, but the one thing that really jumped out in that game too was the REALLY basic portraits of your player and the AI players. I was surprised to see the same artist did the portraits in SOASE.

Honestly, if every sci-fi paperback in the bookstore (even the God-awful ones) can have decent cover art, then this game should deserve better quality portraits. Don't get me wrong; I give high praise to the game graphics and to the game as a whole. Even the music is pretty decent. Why did they cheap-out in the same way twice on the player portraits?

Geez--even the cheezy Fabio-based covers over in the garbage "romance" section are better than these portraits are. Maybe there should be a Fabio portrait tossed in to the mix; maybe to represent all the pirates. Give us a good mugshot of Fabio to aim for when launching an attack.
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ScottyP526
Spartan
Join Date 03/2006
+172
Reply #10 March 2, 2008 3:23:35 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
@Scotty - Come-on.... Lets be reasonible. The art is not that bad. You may not like the style but it is commercial quality nonetheless. Personally I would prefer something more surreal but I accept the design choices inherent with this game as well as GC2. Toonish image styles are the norm for many titles these days. The images for these titles are above that level to be sure. After all they do make these products with the idea that the players will change them anyway so better to spend the money in more important areas such as game play.
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ScottyP526
SpacePonyLordMike
Join Date 11/2005
+16
Reply #11 March 2, 2008 2:59:28 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Just look at what can be done with what we already have..
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ScottyP526
44RS
Join Date 11/2007
0
Reply #12 March 2, 2008 3:05:29 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
lol
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ScottyP526
Spartan
Join Date 03/2006
+172
Reply #13 March 2, 2008 5:35:59 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
OK. +1 creative point for the Ponies.
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ScottyP526
PurplePaladin
Join Date 02/2008
+35
Reply #14 March 11, 2008 2:32:52 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
It might also be a paradox, the gameplay graphics in Sins are so great, so eye-popping, that I guess to see the other artwork in the game, well, it just seems kind'a sub-par.

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ScottyP526
reubenyap
Join Date 03/2008
+3
Reply #15 April 9, 2008 4:54:59 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
You guys might want to see this link for my friend's work in modding the portraits.

very nice guy called Max.

I can find a place to host the files if you guys are interested.

Placed this in the mod section as well.


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ScottyP526
Chipmonk20
Join Date 06/2006
0
Reply #16 April 9, 2008 5:48:12 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
omg i love em.
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ScottyP526
ScottyP526
Join Date 02/2008
0
Reply #17 April 27, 2008 12:48:45 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
These are great.

The first 16 are very well done and would make a great addition to the game.

I must confess that there is something unsettling about the last one. Perhaps it is TOO scary.
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ScottyP526
Windexglow
Join Date 07/2007
+3
Reply #18 April 27, 2008 12:55:26 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
People sure do love stealing the works of others, eh?
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ScottyP526
JSW_Ballz
Join Date 03/2008
+7
Reply #19 April 27, 2008 1:07:09 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums
Windexglow, you sure do love making the same post on multiple threads, eh?
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ScottyP526
Teal_Blue
Join Date 08/2008
+42
Reply #20 September 5, 2008 10:12:20 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

Awesome!!   Thank you for sharing!! 

I think I found one for me

-Teal

 

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ScottyP526
Teal_Blue
Join Date 08/2008
+42
Reply #21 September 10, 2008 3:40:29 PM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

  Thank you for the wonderful avatars!!  These are wonderful!!  Quick question if i might though, is there any reason why a jpg file 63x63 shouldn't load from the desktop for the avatar in images?  (of course there are probably a million reasons)    

But was hoping it was something simple i was missing.

Thank you again for the wonderful avatars and take care,

-Teal

 

 

 

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ScottyP526
derenek
Join Date 02/2007
+4
Reply #22 October 1, 2009 12:52:17 AM
from Sins of a Solar Empire ForumsSins of a Solar Empire Forums

avatars are located in the textures folder under a file called portraits. you can edit in photoshop to change the avatars to anything u weant. I like to change them up for all the mods to have star trek portraits 4 star trek, star wars for star wars, etc....

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