Custom portraits and Custom symbols on ICO

Edited title: Custom portraits and custom symbols

from Sins Forums
I did some searching and found very little on the topic! I did read in a developer chat that Ironclad wished to have put more character portraits into the game. That's fine. I am glad that they are aware of that. :)

What I would like, however, is the option to put my own portraits in there, and my own faction symbols. If the fear is that people would create profanities and inappropriate symbols, I'm not sure if that's an actual problem. Games such as Dawn of War does this and I found it to work just perfectly. Other games, in other genres, such as Lineage 2 and Pirates of the Burning Sea (user-moderated), also does with the community-created items. The good thing with Sins, being a non-MMO, is that you ultimately can choose who to play with - thus the community would probably moderate itself to an extent.

Am I too far out with this request? It would really be nice, from a role-playing and immersion perspective, to have this option even in multi player (I know that files can be edited for single player).

Edit: Now that I made this thread, I realized that there were several forum sections I hadn't seen before, so I might have missed a thread about this. Sorry about that.
89,833 views 28 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Its possible, but you'd have to share them with whomever you are playing , else they won't see them.
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Its possible, but you'd have to share them with whomever you are playing , else they won't see them.

Ah, interesting - is there a way to do this in-game, before starting the game? To iterate my example of Dawn of War - this was seamlessly done when starting the game. So even if it's possible by manipulating files - sending files to your buddies etc. - I would much, much rather see it be a part of the game than a "hack". :)
Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
Ah, interesting - is there a way to do this in-game, before starting the game?


Not presently. It'd basically be a mod.
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
Thank you for the reply. :)

Would you consider making this an addition in future updates? As I mentioned, it would really help me, and my friends who own the game too, quite a bit with the immersion, particularly the little icons.
Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top
It might be possible, just like any instant messenger, just that the User Interface Scripting could be change that the player you see can get a view of the avatar and empire logo, something that the person do not send to another player.
Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top
Hw2 had the ablitly to use custom badges. They were small .tga files that were automatilcy downloaded to a badges folder. just a thought.
Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top
How about Ironclad hosts a portrait competition for budding artists.

the best Advent , the best TEC and the best vasari , get to be included as an OFFICIAL portrait set.

Reply #8 from Sins Forums Top
You can already mod the existing ones. Take a look at the files in the 'textures' folder - specifcly Player_Portrait_*.tga files. It looks like there is plenty of space in those to add new ones. Though wether the game will recognize any ones added in is another matter.

I'll expirement a bit and see how it goes.

D
Reply #9 from Sins Forums Top
Just tried, you cant add new ones but you can mod the existing ones to whatever you like.

D
Reply #11 from Sins Forums Top

Just tried, you cant add new ones but you can mod the existing ones to whatever you like.

D


Well, the point was more to have it as a natural part of the game. A bit like NeoBahamutZ mentioned:

It might be possible, just like any instant messenger, just that the User Interface Scripting could be change that the player you see can get a view of the avatar and empire logo, something that the person do not send to another player.


It's nice and all that it can be changed by modifying your files. But it requires a lot of manual labor and would in the end not work in "random" online games, or against friends you only know indirectly and can't send the files to. :)

I also like the idea of an artist competition, but that's another story and doesn't help a lot when it comes to individualization. :P
Reply #12 from Sins Forums Top
I would also like this. It would add personality ^_^

I would also like to be able to change the color of my ships=p

But the portrait/icon customization would probably be easier, and would be acceptable on its own.
Reply #13 from Sins Forums Top
WWW Link

Bam. Took an hour or two to make the portrait and then to incorporate it into the game. It's really easy to do. It's a shame though the amount of work required just for it.

Still, woot.
Reply #14 from Sins Forums Top

WWW Link

Bam. Took an hour or two to make the portrait and then to incorporate it into the game. It's really easy to do. It's a shame though the amount of work required just for it.

Still, woot.


Nice portrait! But can other players see it when you play on ICO? :)

*That's* the request!

I guess I'm just a roleplayer at heart, but I have a vision. A vision where 'clans' have their own clan crests/icons, where individuals are able to customize their appearance beyond pre-set, static rules. This is the age of web 2.0, after all, no matter how much I dislike that expression. ;)
Reply #15 from Sins Forums Top

WWW Link

Bam. Took an hour or two to make the portrait and then to incorporate it into the game. It's really easy to do. It's a shame though the amount of work required just for it.

Still, woot.


Very cool looking. Great work - it is very pro.
Reply #16 from Sins Forums Top
Yeah, I know what you mean. Thats one reason why I actually liked GalCiv2. It was so easy to import custom portraits/faction symbols into that game.

Thanks for the compliments!
Reply #17 from Sins Forums Top
So, how would one go about editing the file to add/change to a custom faction symbol? And which file would you edit?

<--- has no haxing experience, the most I've ever done is try to edit some Empire at War XMLs, which didn't work in the end anyway. (was trying to make a galactic conquest map start off with each faction owning only one system, like the way Sins starts... it's just no fun starting off with a third of the galaxy already... but the operation proved too complicated for one of my lack of skill)

All I want to do is photoshop a good faction symbol pic so that it would fit well, then load it into the game.

For RPing purposes, yeah. Trying to use the Abh empire crest of the 8 headed dragon from the Banner of the Stars anime series... it just has such an epic feel to it, even if they never really much get into it except in narrative exposition :( I suppose I'll have to read the manga sometime...

I figure I could photoshop this pic into a sweet looking faction symbol- Abh Crest
Reply #18 from Sins Forums Top
i like the portrate and this would be a great idea. it would really help me cause theres only one i like, the one on the homepage.
Reply #19 from Sins Forums Top

How Do you change the pictures to what ever you want?

A tut would be nice thx

Reply #20 from Sins Forums Top

And is it possible to play online with the edited picture/symbol file or would you have to send that file to everyone you play with? I know they wouldnt be able to see it but it would be awesome if i could.

Reply #21 from Sins Forums Top

I found out how to change/edit the Picture sets

But i still haven't found out how to create/change the faction symbols

anyone know how to do this?

Reply #22 from Sins Forums Top

rtsbond for the faction symbols they are in a tga called racelogos.tga in the textures folder, and the small logos are hidden in the ALPHA channel. it is possible to add colour but as the small logos are alpha only you do not get the colour effects that you want

I did play with this in my personal micro megastarbase mod

harpo

 

Reply #23 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting harpo99999, reply 22
rtsbond for the faction symbols they are in a tga called racelogos.tga in the textures folder, and the small logos are hidden in the ALPHA channel. it is possible to add colour but as the small logos are alpha only you do not get the colour effects that you want

Thx man now i know where to find the Faction symbols XD

Reply #24 from Sins Forums Top

Just a question how do you make it so that the logo doesn't show up as a colored square?

thx in advance

Reply #25 from Sins Forums Top

Sorry to dredge this up (Would a new topic have been more appropriate?) but I was wondering if anyone could make a tutorial for this - I want to know how I can add additional Player Portraits (the faction symbols isn't as important). It doesn't have to be for multiplayer, just so that I can play a mod with the correct player portraits is all :)