Alien Races?

[Wydraz]

There are Neutrals, Terrans, Amonkrie and Pirates. I notice there are no alien portraits in the demo. Do we ever see their faces in the full game, or just their ships?

[Captain Kwok]

It depends if they are displayed in one of the mission 'briefings'...but all of them do have a portrait. They're the same as the se4; except the Sith'rak (from Campaign 3) who have the former Xi'Chung portrait.

[Wydraz]

Good, then my alien portraits can be put to good use in my mod. What size are the bitmaps?

[Captain Kwok]

Originally posted by Wydraz:
Good, then my alien portraits can be put to good use in my mod. What size are the bitmaps?<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">They are 256x256 and are added to the images>portraits directory.

[Ed Kolis]

256x256.

(BTW, Aaron told us that the original models were unfortunately lost in a computer crash, so all the race portraits are simply smoothed rescales of the original SE4 portraits. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif But take heart - that's also the reason all the ships in the game got a complete makeover! To tell you the truth, I never cared much for the old Abbidon ships, they were just too symmetrical... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif )

[Wydraz]

This is directed at those who've played the full game: How is communication with alien ships or planets presented in the game? Is it just the "Contact" button - after you land on a planet or station? Is the random cummunication from ships as you pass near them all there is in space, or is there a real "first contact" situation when you meet a new alien race in space and an actual dialog takes place?

[Ed Kolis]

Just the contact button at bases and planets. The random radio Messages from ships are just fluff (ever had a pirate threaten to board you even though the game doesn't have boarding parties? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif ) and when they were put in, Aaron said they were just filler for a real communication system... which has never materialized. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif So here's to hoping real communications appears in a patch!

[Wydraz]

Glancing at the data files I am imagining that the sort of communications I envision can at least be simulated to a small degree using events and dialogs. Do you think this can be done by mods?