Question about Gold

[Argh]

Hey folks, if anybody knows the answer to this, I'd really appreciate it:

The promo for SEIV Gold has a mystifying feature listed that states, "multiple bitmaps per vehicle size".

What I'd like to know is this: is it finally going to be possible to make bitmaps for the combat screen that are larger than the current tiny specks? Or does this just mean that I can use bitmap A for my Really Huge Dreadnought and bitmap B for my Gigantic Space Carrier, which both use the same "vehicle size"?

As I've been debating about whether or not to buy SEIV Gold, so that I can make a shipset or few, one of the things that will influence my purchase decision is whether or not I will be able to use larger bitmaps than the current ones, which are too small to really put much details in. I know, most of you folks are more engrossed in the other aspects of the game, and will probably think I'm silly, but it's really annoying that this 24-bit game, that in so many other ways is superior to Master of Orion II, has such tiny bitmap images for the ships on the combat screen. Gosh-darnit, I want a proper feeling of *scale*- right now, I've put off making a shipset for SEIV solely because that feature's missing. Any answers?

[Baron Munchausen]

It means that you can have a 'first choice' and a 'second choice' for the image used to represent each ship size. There is a 'primary' and 'secondary' bitmap entry for each ship class now. So, if you make a custom mod with different ship sizes, and a special shipset to match, your mod can still work with the standard races -- without having to create new bitmaps for them -- if you assign standard sizes as 'secondary' choices on your new ship types.

As far as I know, once the game chooses to use a given bitmap you're stuck with it in both system and combat screens.

[ 12 December 2001: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]