Tweet
I was mucking around in the SMAC directory looking for files that I might be able to alter and I came across one named "NewIcons". You can open it up in Paint and have a look at some interesting stuff.
First off we see some older simpler Nut,min,eng symbols most like early crude place holders made durring development. Most of the material didn't make it into the final game yet its called "new" so their were probably even more primitive versions of all the information displayed.
Their are also 3 simple pictures for Talent, Worker and Drone. Notice that the talents are already assosiated with harps at this early stage. Hense why the symbol for the Paradise Garden is a Harp.
Most interesting of all though are small faction Icons to the right side of the page. Gaian's and Spartans are normal but nothing else matches.
The "Keepers" whom I am assuming are the Peace Keepers are using the Hive logo. At some Point they desided to give that Logo to the Hive and use the UN/Starfleet like logo that the PeaceKeepers now use. The Peace Keepers current logo isn't very original as a result.
The Morgans are using a Dimond shaped logo which mildly resembles what they eventualy use. No idea why that was changed, the old logo looks good to me.
Their is a faction called the Archon's using a logo I have never seen before and which seems to resemble a wrench, I am assuming these guys are the University in discuise. They probably changed name to university to accentuate the tec focus of the faction. Their new logo contains an Atomic sysmol also for tecnology. Perhaps the Archons were not a tec focused faction.
The Beliver Logo is assosiated with the Conclave. If you think about this it makes perfect sense and you just have to slap your head. THE CONCLAVE BIBLE! The belivers must have had their name changes just before the product shipped, all the wav files, facility descriptions and Tec descriptions refer to the conclave bible. Then at the 11th hour they deside that Belivers is a better name for the faction (I agree by the way) and just left all the Conclave bible references in their. I amd I asume most of you out their never suspected a thing, we all naturaly think this is some sophisticated design element.
Lastly we have the Labyrinth faction using another never before seen logo. I am assuming these guys are the Hive also in Discuise. I suspect this because Yang's Undergroung bases would make great Labyrith's. Yang then stole the Peace Keepers logo (which could have been the sourse of deep seeted animosity between them). I guess this also mean that the Hive logo was not concived as a stylized Ying-Yang symbol which had always been my asumption.
Now you might say I got the Archon's and Labyrinth backwards but I have infact found Confirmation that the University = Archons and Hive = Labyrinth. If you also open up the "system" text file and scroll most of the way down you can find a reference to faction colors that use these old faction names, the names of the colors though perfectly match the final faction colors, which makes me belive that the colors fo the factions were desided very early.
One final myster remains, notice the 4 large very simple sysmbols with 4 names, Vehice, Tool, Buillding, Project. These seem to be catagores for things bases can produce, Vehices or Units, Buildings or Facilites and "secret" Projects. But what the heck are Tools? What ever it is it represents something that is significant enough to be put on an equal footing with Facilites and Secret Projects. Perhaps this was some kind of game mechanic or group of construction options that was droped in the early production process of SMAC.
If anyone has any guesses or even better 3rd hand rummors I would be glad to hear them.
First off we see some older simpler Nut,min,eng symbols most like early crude place holders made durring development. Most of the material didn't make it into the final game yet its called "new" so their were probably even more primitive versions of all the information displayed.
Their are also 3 simple pictures for Talent, Worker and Drone. Notice that the talents are already assosiated with harps at this early stage. Hense why the symbol for the Paradise Garden is a Harp.
Most interesting of all though are small faction Icons to the right side of the page. Gaian's and Spartans are normal but nothing else matches.
The "Keepers" whom I am assuming are the Peace Keepers are using the Hive logo. At some Point they desided to give that Logo to the Hive and use the UN/Starfleet like logo that the PeaceKeepers now use. The Peace Keepers current logo isn't very original as a result.
The Morgans are using a Dimond shaped logo which mildly resembles what they eventualy use. No idea why that was changed, the old logo looks good to me.
Their is a faction called the Archon's using a logo I have never seen before and which seems to resemble a wrench, I am assuming these guys are the University in discuise. They probably changed name to university to accentuate the tec focus of the faction. Their new logo contains an Atomic sysmol also for tecnology. Perhaps the Archons were not a tec focused faction.
The Beliver Logo is assosiated with the Conclave. If you think about this it makes perfect sense and you just have to slap your head. THE CONCLAVE BIBLE! The belivers must have had their name changes just before the product shipped, all the wav files, facility descriptions and Tec descriptions refer to the conclave bible. Then at the 11th hour they deside that Belivers is a better name for the faction (I agree by the way) and just left all the Conclave bible references in their. I amd I asume most of you out their never suspected a thing, we all naturaly think this is some sophisticated design element.
Lastly we have the Labyrinth faction using another never before seen logo. I am assuming these guys are the Hive also in Discuise. I suspect this because Yang's Undergroung bases would make great Labyrith's. Yang then stole the Peace Keepers logo (which could have been the sourse of deep seeted animosity between them). I guess this also mean that the Hive logo was not concived as a stylized Ying-Yang symbol which had always been my asumption.
Now you might say I got the Archon's and Labyrinth backwards but I have infact found Confirmation that the University = Archons and Hive = Labyrinth. If you also open up the "system" text file and scroll most of the way down you can find a reference to faction colors that use these old faction names, the names of the colors though perfectly match the final faction colors, which makes me belive that the colors fo the factions were desided very early.
One final myster remains, notice the 4 large very simple sysmbols with 4 names, Vehice, Tool, Buillding, Project. These seem to be catagores for things bases can produce, Vehices or Units, Buildings or Facilites and "secret" Projects. But what the heck are Tools? What ever it is it represents something that is significant enough to be put on an equal footing with Facilites and Secret Projects. Perhaps this was some kind of game mechanic or group of construction options that was droped in the early production process of SMAC.
If anyone has any guesses or even better 3rd hand rummors I would be glad to hear them.
or I think so:
Comment