Faction Creation

[Enigma_Nova]

I'm interested in accumulating knowledge on faction creation.
I've made a custom faction in SMAC. I currently have them replacing the Spartans, and play them in single player.

The Nova Project (Nova)
Ideology: Idealist; Against practicalism.
Starting tech: Ethical Calculus
(Idealists know much about morals)
Free Facility at each base: Children's Creche
(To Guard the hopes and ideals of children)
Social effects:
-3 Economy: Idealists offended by 'practical concerns',
and see no need for energy in ideal humanity.
Cannot use Free Market economics
+1 Research: Idealism leads to intellectualism
+1 Support: Followers strongly aligned behind ideal
Extra Talent per 6 citizens: Emphasise the ideal human

Their potential to pop boom is incredible, with Creche for free and talents to counteract drones.
+support means they get up to base size for free when you switch to police state (or power). Since they usually have populous bases, this is quite powerful!
Their Achilles heel is obviously their economy. With no free market and -3 to start, They can only ever get to +1 with Eudai/Wealth/GA - so no +1/square at all.

Are they overpowered?
Are they underpowered?

Secondly, I'd like to know of any .pcx editors with the following abilities:
Pixel by Pixel editing (similar to MSPAINT.EXE).
Ease of uploading and using a colour palette (I've not edited a .pcx before)
Abilities to copy-paste in snippets from .bmp, .jpg or .gif.

[Brundlefly]

-3 economy really stings.

[gwillybj]

Enigma_Nova asked...
Are they overpowered?
Are they underpowered?

In solo-play that depends on the player.
One who normally relies on economic means will face a major challenge and think they are underpowered.
Rushing production will be nearly impossible because so much energy will be lost and much of what is harvested will go to facility maintenance.
Without giving them a test-run, I don't see any indication of overpower.

[gwillybj]

Enigma_Nova wrote...
I'm interested in accumulating knowledge on faction creation...
I'd like to know of any .pcx editors with the following abilities:
Pixel by Pixel editing (similar to MSPAINT.EXE).
Ease of uploading and using a colour palette (I've not edited a .pcx before)
Abilities to copy-paste in snippets from .bmp, .jpg or .gif.

Among those that work are: Adobe Photoshop, Corel PhotoPaint, and JASC Paint Shop Pro. The product information should specifically state that it reads and writes the PCX format.
MSPaint does not work. It will read (open) a PCX image, but will not write (save) it properly.
See Faction Colors, Palettes, PCX files for a list of several threads on the topic here at Apolyton, followed by a step-by-step "how I do it with JASC Paint Shop Pro".