06-02-2003 03:05									#1
	Official Custom Player Flag Contest Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

Leiavoia of the Orion Sector, myself (the Grand Potato), and Infogrames have just initiated a contest over at the Orion Sector. We're taking submissions for an Official Player Flag pack. Up to 75 flags will be included in the pack, depending on number of submissions and quality.

The coolest part is, this is all OFFICIAL. This flag-pack will be included as an official download (possibly included in the first patch, as well). Oh, yeah, and the top five flag-designers get FREE COPIES OF MoO3!

Anyhoo... head on over to the Orion Sector for more details.

	06-02-2003 09:11									#2
	Full PM-box? Change here!

I saw this yesterday evening when I visited Orion Sector. Sounds like a good deal.

	06-02-2003 09:53									#3
	Get a bigger avatar today!

...and now we know why you've adopted the title "the Grand Potato."

Is the person on the couch the Lesser Potato?

	06-02-2003 20:40									#4
	Inflate your Upload Space

Anybody got any suggestions for flag designs I can work on?

	07-02-2003 00:30									#5
	Put an end to popups!

As far as creating the png's goes, should the background be black or transparent, or does it matter?

	07-02-2003 02:53									#6
	Increase the size of your Attachments

quote: Originally posted by Straybow ...and now we know why you've adopted the title "the Grand Potato." Is the person on the couch the Lesser Potato?

It should be "a Grand Potato" because it is a title meant for two people. Myself, and my associate, and (skinny) co-Potato, Chad.

It's a long story, began as a freshman in college, and would be at www.ssg.org if my host weren't a ****ER.

www.grandpotato.com

And on the couch is my bride-to-be Mandy.

	07-02-2003 02:55									#7
	Increase Your PM Length

quote: Originally posted by BreadMan As far as creating the png's goes, should the background be black or transparent, or does it matter?

In-game, transparent areas will be over black, but at the race-select screen, it will be over moo blue.

In other words, transparent is preferable to black.

	07-02-2003 05:21									#8
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

I'll start working on some but I doubt I'll have any done before next week as this is my drill weekend.

Is there an image of what flags the game already comes with? I don't want to make a bunch that look too close to the originals.

	08-02-2003 10:32									#9
	Increase the size of your Attachments

There's a thread over at IGMoo called "Player Flags - Examples"

For me, it's buried on the second page now, since it's not stickied.

	08-02-2003 10:54									#10
	Got spare money?

Hell, here's the URL to where I stored the images. The GIFs are examples of what the white flag looks like against MoO blue, and the PNGs are the actual game files.

http://www.iusb.edu/~jolowe/flags/

	08-02-2003 11:32									#11
	Support Apolyton, buy Call to Power 2

Does anyone know if you have to use Adobe Photoshop to make a flag or can you use something like Microsoft Paint?

	09-02-2003 00:00									#12
	Full PM-box? Change here!

Anything that can save to PNG format will do. Photoshop is NOT required (otherwise, i'd be out for sure).

I would recommend the GIMP for Windows, which is powerfull and free also:
http://www.gimp.org/

i also recommend Paint Shop Pro 7, which is worth buying but can also be downloaded for trial:
http://www.jasc.com/

	09-02-2003 01:07									#13
	Lose 30 kilos (of popups)

cool

thanks leiavoia

	09-02-2003 06:52									#14
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

quote: Originally posted by ssgjames Hell, here's the URL to where I stored the images. The GIFs are examples of what the white flag looks like against MoO blue, and the PNGs are the actual game files. http://www.iusb.edu/~jolowe/flags/

Thanks, wow, I was WAY OFF in the direction I was going.

Here's one of the crappier ones I was practicing with.

	09-02-2003 07:33									#15
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

quote: Originally posted by ssgjames Hell, here's the URL to where I stored the images. The GIFs are examples of what the white flag looks like against MoO blue, and the PNGs are the actual game files. http://www.iusb.edu/~jolowe/flags/

Those do not seem to be consistent with the tutorials, they do not use transparent backgrounds and the contest information says that white stands out the best and changes acording to the empire colour, where as grey is the only shade that turns blue in those examples.


Or is the grey supposed to represent the transparent background?


Either way, I wish there was some way of accurately previwing what they look like - fiddling with layers isn't very effective.

	09-02-2003 08:46									#16
	Inflate your Upload Space

how about this:

http://forum.orionsector.com/viewtopic.php?t=213

	10-02-2003 19:55									#17
	Help yourself to an AD-FREE life

quote: Originally posted by Osweld Those do not seem to be consistent with the tutorials, they do not use transparent backgrounds and the contest information says that white stands out the best and changes acording to the empire colour, where as grey is the only shade that turns blue in those examples. Or is the grey supposed to represent the transparent background? Either way, I wish there was some way of accurately previwing what they look like - fiddling with layers isn't very effective.

Okay... to clarify and restate what I already said...

The GIF files are VISUAL examples to show you what the shapes look like, given a moo blue background and no color layer (exactly what you see when you select the image at the start of a new game). You do not submit files that look like these... if you do, they will be tossed out.

The PNG files are the ACTUAL GAME FILES with white and alpha channel.... if they're not a good example, I don't know what is. If you're seeing odd gray shapes, try opening the files in your graphics program or another browser. I know IE doesn't support PNG transparency, so it'll look funny in explorer.

edit: and if you want to see what they look like, check out Rantz's tutorial on www.moo3.com, he shows you how to effectively preview the pic.

	12-02-2003 01:24									#18
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

So far I've seen preety da*mn good flags, specialy those posted @ orionsector.

i have four designs so far, made them with a combination of, autocad and photoshop, lw3d and photoshop.

I know there is a way to do them straight from lw, but dunno how.

anyways, may the best frag-maker I mean, flag-maker win.

	12-02-2003 02:48									#19
	Put an end to popups!

I've got a few now... my talents with making these things aren't very good, but I had some stock logos I had made for other games that I worked yesterday to ground down to still look good at 32x32 and minimized from that (which was hard).

Worth a shot.

	12-02-2003 06:17									#20
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

Okay, my new designs are looking MUCH better now, thanks for the heads up and examples!

	17-02-2003 02:39									#21
	Photoshop PNG Save-As or Export to Web question! Increase the size of your Attachments

ACK!

I am in a dilemma, don't know what to do, if to save-as PNG, and have not the option to save alpha channel (weird I know) or to export to web and specify save transparency.

If I save it, it will generate a bigger PNG than exporting it, also, the files look identical, and are both aliased with transparency, but I do not know if they'll work.

Sorry if the question seems confusing I will try again.

Two options:

1) Save-as PNG which will only tell me that I can only save as copy.

2) Export to PNG which will ask me if I want to save transparency.

Both generate 1,4kB or 1,2kB sized files.

Any ideas?

Maybe it's just me,... and everything should work either way...

'elp...?

Edit: Is there a naming convention? I assumed it is just Flag1_p79.png, Flag2_p79.png, etc...

Last edited by pablof79 on 17-02-2003 at 03:12