FreeOrion

Well Mat you raise some good points but there's some good in-universe reasons for the appearance of the Yalkai and for comparison you should also examine how we've handled the Human characters

The Yalkai are in fact a radially symmetric non-humanoid species that use chemical and infrasonic "glamors" to convince other species that they appear as members of their opposite biological sex. So for the Tharrn they'd say a large blue female Tharrn (the one shown in the wallpaper, the soldier is a female Tharrn the males are the tiny ones). Since our players are human and we don't have an infinite art budget, we wanted a species to play up the "siren" trope that we see from the Syreen in Star Control, Star Trek's Orions, Mass Effect's Asari, and Master of Orion's Elerians. However the designs for the Yalkai are significantly less sexualized than their equivalents from these franchises that inspired them.

So here's a concept of the natural form of the Yalkai, which appears when they're angered and the glamor breaks down:


So for contrast the Human female characters:

Their outfits are functional and none of the much derided "boob armor." In the case of the Yalkai it's entirely a construct in the mind of the viewer, so the outfits are not in fact functional.

Overall we're trying to walk a line between respecting tropes and trying not to be overly sexualizing. With the Yalkai being a backstabbing "fallen honor" species more like Babylon 5's Centauri and actually being starfish-like we're trying to throw a few wrenches in the standard space opera "amazon women."

Ah, ok, that's actually kinda cool, thanks for the explanation.

Today's update is a little bit on the diplomacy mechanics in the game which we're trying to expand a bit more beyond current 4xes out there with creating full blown unions, client states, and having the AI behave in manners consistent with the backstory for each species.

http://www.lordofrigel.com/news/feature ... diplomacy/

Also the above image is of the Tharrn diplomat. She tends to like eating people alive when talks go bad.

Well it's Monday so we have a new "music Monday" covering how the tracks for the Ornithon and Tulock species were composed:
http://www.lordofrigel.com/news/composi ... nd-tulock/

Explorminate also released part 2 of their pre-alpha gameplay series, showing off the ship designer, fleet movement, and colonization:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ADiXQsZelg

There's also a new ambient track on Soundcloud for listening!
https://soundcloud.com/rhombustudios/ambient-track-32

Since people like the pretties, here's a new wallpaper showing off the Tulocks:

So today's a new story article, covering the Cold War between the Rigelans and Arcturans which is a cornerstone of how diplomacy in the game works:
http://www.lordofrigel.com/news/species ... -cold-war/

Also, showing off a storyboard and a fleet scale image for the Yalkai!

Anyhow for today we have an article covering how colony populations work and the mechanics behind them:
http://www.lordofrigel.com/news/mechani ... opulation/

Also, a wallpaper showing off the Yalkai in action (That'll be it for them here for a bit!):

Another new update, an article by newman covering the Selach fleet's design:
http://www.lordofrigel.com/news/ship-de ... et-design/

...and to go with the Selach fleet is a wallpaper showing off the Selach characters!

A new design article, this time covering how tech trees work and why we chose to limit special tech trees to the elder races:
http://www.lordofrigel.com/news/design- ... ogy-trees/

Also, something tied to end game techs, orbitals! (ring worlds)

So for today we have a new article on how outposts work in LoR and what we're doing to make them stand out from other 4x games:
http://www.lordofrigel.com/news/feature ... -outposts/

Also some tactical combat!

We are getting down to brass tacks, a week to go until we launch our tactical combat demo and Kickstarter campaign. Our first stretch goal will be modding tools to let people easily add new species, technologies, and fleets to the game.

Steve wrote a new music composition article, this time covering the Humans and the mechanical Synth:
http://www.lordofrigel.com/news/composi ... and-synth/

Also a new image for the day, showing off the Tharrn:

Is that Tharn guy in the middle really flipping us off? (He doesn't really have a middle finger to use, but it seems like he's doing his best.)

Well that's the first time I heard that it looks like she's flipping people off, but now I can't unsee it It does fit with their personality though! The little guys on the right are the Tharrn males.

Anyway as part of our heading towards the Kickstarter we have a new story article on the Galactic Council and its history.
http://www.lordofrigel.com/news/species ... c-council/


Also the council chambers!

If you want more on diplomacy then read up on what was "planned" for Master of Orion 3. While buggy as hell and nearly unplayable out of the box it *DID* have a lot of untried ideas that might have made it one of the top 4X games. Don't know how much info is still out there but good luck.

Well mentioning that game can sometimes be unpopular on certain circles, but a lot of the mechanics on how diplomacy works in LoR are based on properly executing some of the concepts in MOO3. Having a cold war with the elder species and them playing a more active role fits with how the New Orions were supposed to operate, for instance.

Anyway we have a new game mechanics article, this time covering ship movement in tactical and strategic modes:
http://www.lordofrigel.com/news/mechani ... -movement/

Plus a sneak peak at the Ornithons, the avian cyborgs who draw very heavily as a mix of Klingon and Cardassian designs:

Well, the game as released was horrible but from a developers standpoint.. after reading over everything released by te developer, playing the early alpha, and playing the game users the community patches/mods I prefer it over many other 4X games I have played. With the exception of Stars! THAT is still my favorite despite the clunky space battle "VCR" and the micromanagement, etc.

When I play a 4X i WANT both macro and micro management. The more the better. I want, if I so choose, to control every little detail in the game. I just wish MoO3 had MORE information on the mechanics of migration, tourism, trade, etc.

But... the diplomacy was supposed to be really good with a lot more options that what made it into the final version. Sad really... the developer AND the publisher dropped the ball big time.