Yes, I know this will probably end up killing any time i had left, but I'm in the process of making a mod of every graphic...make everything into a space-colony theme.
What I have so far is: (graphics)
- collectables
- map and areas
- 60% done with all female icons

Just some questions I was hoping for some input on.

- instead ofs:
- cheif - commander
- research lab - computer room
- alchemy components - computer parts
- orchard - biosphere garden
- sharks - aliens
- statue - ?
- rubble - ?
- leaves (roster of death) - ?
- fire - ?
- bath - ?
- graveyard - ?
- lift - ?

This is sounding cool

Advice on a large mod, hmmm? I'll give you everything I can. I've been on mod teams for a lot of games, so hopefully I have some good ideas and suggestions left.

I had a similar idea for a TC that would need a total work-over of every image; it's a little different than yours. If you're interested in working together on that one, or even just tossing ideas back and forth, PM me. I could use more motivation myself. Not to mention that I can't figure out how some ideas would work, and I can't really get into something that I don't know if I could finish.

Research lab:I think due to the method of gaining tech points, the research room should be a research room; both tables can include computers and more sophisticated equipment, though.

Alchemy lab: The Alchemy lab makes potions, too, though. You can include a replicator or chemistry section (or whatever) with the equipment, to make an excuse for the drug-like effects of some potions, though.

The orchard might be difficult to put an entire sphere around; you might, though, put a sphere or a vertical glass column around each individual tree with some glassy, translucent reflective effects. Unfortunately, like humans, the trees appear to scale up as they grow, so the glass enclosure would change size as they grow, too. Perhaps a force-fieldish enclosure, if that's not too advanced.

You can't make a transparent effect like that part of the map; the tree would just be overlaid on top. If there's a way around that, I don't know of it.

Sharks:You might use malfunctioning security droids instead of sharks; using the computer room to make a reprogramming module (or whatever) would make sense.

Statue: Toughie. The statue really is so specific in its solution that it really can't be many different things via graphical mods. You might, though, change what it's a statue OF: Aliens? The Predator? Ewoks? The "Mega-Maid?"

I'm trying to come up with other possibilities for the statue; Perhaps a power core or something, but a player expects to gain some benefit from that. Since it grants no benefits, something aesthetic is probably best. Maybe just a huge viewscreen displaying the word "OBEY". (Okay, yes, I'm twisted.)

Rubble: Rubble is rubble, but it would just be the same puzzle all over again, if that were the case. Instead of clearing debris, how about using chunks of electronics instead of rocks, and directing the player to salvage electronics from the broken stuff, in order to get door controls working?

Then again, that might be a better idea for the three door keys.

Leaves: Perhaps you can replace broken electronics here - tossing out bad parts - to get the static viewscreen to display text, instead?

Fire: This is tough. Not only does it make people healthy, they dance around it. Space-age colonists don't generally dance around their carbon scrubbers or their air processors or their recycling systems. Maybe an entertainment area, just a bunch of viewscreens and speakers, here? The fire is animated, which is both good and bad; I don't think you can make the 'filmstrip' images larger so you can't fit more things in, but they're also animated, so you CAN do more with them, like make the screens show people moving around.

Bath: Bath. I mean, people gotta wash, right? You might turn it into a swimming pool, with a video-camera lifeguard keeping watch, but it's basically going to act like a bunch of people in water. Maybe you can make it an algae farm, producing oxygen from their labors? There's no way to make it a critical task, though.

Graveyard: Another toughie. There's not much you can do with this, except make it a graveyard, though you might change what TYPE it is; perhaps you can replace gravestones with cryogenic caskets; the dead would supposedly be revived when whatever killed them can be overcome.

Lift: Well, at the moment, it grants you access to the orchard by elevating villagers. Certainly you could 'tech-up' its image, but how to explain why such technology only functions in the rain? Perhaps the lightning provides the power needed, beyond what fuels life-support. I don't have a lot of ideas for this one.

statue can be a rocket

Yeah, but why fix a rocket that you never launch? Unfortunately, once that puzzle's completed, it doesn't ever change visually again, and there's no benefit that can be conferred by completing it.

hmmm... I've been thinking perhaps combine what I want to do with what's already there (gotta re-do all my base maps grrr) How about this, space colony crashed on an alien planet? That'll solve issues like fire, not having to deal with spheres over objects. As for the statue, maybe an antena or part of their crashed ship?
Maybe for the bath make it like the pool from Caccoon? make it glow and such.
As for alchemy, I was thinking of having computer parts for the room that fixes a pharmacy dispenser (providing you supply the correct drug pieces)

Thanks for everyo

Antenna works for the statue; I'm not sure how a colony crashes. I thought perhaps you were reviving a defunct colony, but now it sounds like you were aiming to have several domes or somesuch, separated by empty space?

My first impression is that the entire area would be under a dome; perhaps translucent segments of the dome could be visible over some of the lower edges, but fade out very quickly, so as not to interfere with the play area. Also because you don't want villagers to walk over the graphic that they're supposed to appear to be underneath.

A livable, self-sufficient dome should, realistically, be pretty big, plenty big to cover the play area, I think.

My first idea was to have it on like the moon with everything in the game now under one huge dome which is only visible when you go to the map screen.

Anyway, here are some more ideas I've had:

fire - home made generator that uses fire to run
statue - "supporting" column for the dome (needs to be fixed to make sure dome doesn't collapse?)
fishing - mineral gathering (sharks=aliens?) since only the head is shown in the water I was planning on putting them in a "space" suit

also, as for the background story, here's what's been bouncing around my brain:

Just as with vv3, a family ... ok, let's just steal the Lost in Space plot but have the family crash land on an asteroid where they find an ancient human space colony now in ruins but still supports basic life functions (air, food, etc.) their crashed ship (wood pile near honey) gives them some supplies for building / fixing structures and the rest of the plot sticks with vv3.

the rocket would landon a planet and get a space rock (pearl)

But we can only make graphical changes. There would be no implication that the rocket is the reason that the pearl appeared, except that experienced players know that the puzzle works that way. We can't even add or edit a text notification.

Then again, this is something I didn't like about the VV statue puzzle, either; the reason building a statue should expose a pearl was never clear to me. Maybe I blow through the game's opening text notifications too quickly?