No female soldiers? Aww come on... you know you want to add them =)

[The New Romance]

These look pretty good, a great improvement since when you started.

Absolutely. I didn't think you'd be able to change that so fast, but now the ladies are pretty close to the official models.

[Chris]

The biggest issue is the camera angle - you need a 30 degree camera with orthographic / isometric projection to match the view we use for our in-game sprites.

[thothkins]

quick turnaround and looking very good.

[oracle1990]

I'm gonna ask an odd question chaps, but have you actually seen a picture of a frontline female soldier?

[erutan]

I'll chime in and say portraits/names/screams would be fine - they shouldn't take massive dev time and you can always add in some sprite variations later on when more money is rolling in. I don't think the sprites should have "feminine" armor - ponytails would be a nice throwback but not necessary.

[Commissar Pancakes]

Everyone has buzcut!

Besides, the distance the camera is away from the ground, it's not that easy to find distinctions between males and females. ESPECIALLY if they're wearing armor.

[IceVamp]

I don't think the sprites should have "feminine" armor - ponytails would be a nice throwback but not necessary.

Armour with breasts, so to speak, is a death trap and no one going into actual combat should ever wear it, nor did they most likely.

[oracle1990]

A possible solution:

[IceVamp]

Yup, that's nice oracle. Though I would surmise that most bosoms would fit inside a standard wolf+ armour actually.

[Gauddlike]

I know in reality it would be difficult to tell the difference.

It is difficult enough to tell in motorbike leathers so in heavy armour it would be even worse.

I just feel it looks lazy in a game to have the same sprites for both.

That could just be because I know the current ones are supposed to reflect male soldiers so to me they look male.

[IceVamp]

As long as there's a woman's head on the soldier, I can live with it.

Tbh what gives women away in heavy getups are their hips, and the way they move. You probably wouldn't see it as far away as the battlescape, but the equip screen could use some more hips to make it clear that it's indeed the fairer sex inside that suit.

Edited May 6, 2012 by IceVamp

[flashman]

I would think portraits and if possible equip screen art would suffice.

The issue with women is that very few forces would/still allow front line women in 1977. Perhaps you could argue that its a world ending situation and the rules were relaxed.

I believe the 1st US women to lead soldiers in battle, did so in the 1st Gulf War 1990.

Edited May 6, 2012 by flashman
edit:was 100 years out of date :P

[IceVamp]

Luckily, Xenonauts are not US only, and that issue isn't really a big one. Just because armies are mainly men, doesn't mean women haven't, didn't or wouldn't serve in them. In the beginning of the 70's basically all of nato except a few allowed women to serve in combat.

[oracle1990]

2 screenshots:

I guess it have to be 2 more armour made for female; Wolf and Buzzard. Further on you can not tell the sex anyway.

Edited May 6, 2012 by oracle1990

[Gorlom]

A possible solution:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1039[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]1040[/ATTACH]

Looks nice. But I would suggest 3 changes: 1) dont make the black (on boots etc) so darn reflective. It doesn't even look black anymore. 2) That crotch thing you have added to the females armour looks a bit too futuristic for my tastes. I'm not sure there is any point in changeing the design that much from the male pants? (you have defended it against my inquires before I know)

3) remove the boobs from the bullet proof vest. It looks rather silly. Should be quite possible to fit boobs under a flat vest.

PS. Is the female belly protrouding/bulgeing more then the male bellies? (at the belt levelspecifically) The stance looks kind of odd to me somehow? If you compare the 2 the females almost look 3-5 months pregnant to me =S

Edited May 6, 2012 by Gorlom

[IceVamp]

Looks nice. But I would suggest 3 changes: 1) dont make the black (on boots etc) so darn reflective. It doesn't even look black anymore. 2) That crotch thing you have added to the females armour looks a bit too futuristic for my tastes. I'm not sure there is any point in changeing the design that much from the male pants? (you have defended it against my inquires before I know)

3) remove the boobs from the bullet proof vest. It looks rather silly. Should be quite possible to fit boobs under a flat vest.

PS. Is the female belly protrouding/bulgeing more then the male bellies? (at the belt levelspecifically) The stance looks kind of odd to me somehow?

I've gotta agree with these points. While flak vests don't have "boobs" they would be pushed further from the chest if the bosom was ample enough, if you know what I mean by that.

[erutan]

Armor plates shaped like boobs would channel rounds towards the chest, bad thing. It might have a bit more girth depending on the person, but I don't think that's a critical aesthetic function. I'd agree that a subtle 'hourglass shape' focused around the hips would be nice.

One little curveball is the service record bit... they'd mainly be from Israel and more insurgent based armies like Vietnam. Even most NATO countries back then didn't use females for infantry combat afaik.

Edited May 6, 2012 by erutan

[IceVamp]

Armor plates shaped like boobs would channel rounds towards the chest, bad thing. It might have a bit more girth depending on the person, but I don't think that's a critical aesthetic function. I'd agree that a subtle 'hourglass shape' focused around the hips would be nice.

One little curveball is the service record bit... they'd mainly be from Israel and more insurgent based armies like Vietnam. Even most NATO countries back then didn't use females for infantry combat afaik.

According to wikipedia, a bunch did actually. How many females that actually were in combat is another matter. Then again, fudging it a bit isn't too hard. These are aliens we're fighting after all. Maybe the Iceland incident saw a spur of women wanting to be soldiers.

[erutan]

Yeah I see some countries have women troops etc, then 2004 was the first time one saw active combat since WW2. Though with the amount of male troops in game that don't have combat experience I suppose that might not be too big a deal as long as they've been trained. It's really a moot point anyways, since they progress so quickly in a few battles anyways heh.

I was thinking it might be kind of interesting from an abstract socio-political standpoint to see women soldiers represented from different areas more than a omg problem with implementing it.