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Baron, change your game dev company name to "Lustful Adventures". You'll surely get more customers.

Ha!  You know, I've considered going down that route.  But could I wake up every morning, look myself in the ceiling mirror, and say "There's a man I respect?"

Seriously, AGSers, is this all the rumpus you got?!?  I used to hang out on this site for the entertainment value.  Now I just hang out on this site....

You guys think too much.  The train is coming, the rapist is in action, Hitler has bent down to tie his shoe next to the rushing traffic of the autobahn.... by the time you reconcile your ethical stance to your intended actions the moment for action has long passed.  Many a great moral action has no doubt been killed in utero by this deer-in-the-headlights phenomenon.  I would submit to you that most actions are just reactions: like the spine jerking the arm away from a hot pot, or instinct suddenly seizing control.  Afterwards we rationalize and justify, according to our ethical schema, and most of us are probably pretty good at either:

1) determining that we made the right decision (whether or not it was objectively "right"), or

2) determining that we didn't make the right decision but assuming the consequences (real world penalties, internal remorse... what have you).

Anyone who could not justify themselves as righteous or could not rue and repent would either be evil ("yeah, it's bad, so what?"), or incapable of higher self-awareness (due to age, developmental delay, mental illness, etc.), and I'm not even sure evil people would fit into this category because it lacks motive for continued action: wouldn't you just get sick and tired of it all?

So ethics I say would be relative to the ability of the actor to self-delude in 90% of the cases where "the moment" just happens.  In those few cases where a pre-meditated action has to be considered, I will concede there may be an element of ethical dilemma, but again how many ethical philosophers go around committing grave acts?  This would be like Hamlet plotting the demise of his uncle: he over analyses the ethics behind the action to the point where no action is taken (I would argue that events caught up with him in the end, and it was in a fit of passion that he finally murders Claudius).  How many of the posters in this thread have killed a villainous rogue or an innocent bystander?  Most people would probably base their intended actions on social acceptance (essentially tribalism: "my friends said it was ok"), greed ("I wanted something") or fear ("if I don't do this, things will be bad").  So the guy who has time to think about saving his wife or the five people would save his wife because he is greedy, or the Nazi death camp worker would flip the switch because he's shit scared of the tribal repercussions if he doesn't (note that this isn't consequentialism -he knows it's wrong).  All of these more instinctual motivations could later be justified as virtual ethics, deontology, consequentialism, or pragmatism depending on the bent of the person involved.

In summation, ethics as a determinant of action are often a revisionist mental construct.  Ethics as a yardstick for evaluating actions after the fact (ie passing judgement) are relative in that they are susceptible the persuasive abilities of the advocate.  Ethics can help the human mind interpret what is right, but interpretation itself is subject to the faults and fancies of the human mind.  Therefore ethics are in absolute terms only an illusion, although it sure makes you sound impressive when you quote Kant (so you will probably succeed in persuading people of your righteousness, no matter what it is you actually did).   

Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down.  Ghost is gone?  This... saddens me.  I guess Billy Joel was right....

I become Ponch when the sun sets.  Hssssssssss!

It has its moments, in the previews anyway.  Robot Chicken was funny so.... I guess this has potential.  Let's face facts: the Star Wars universe has been utterly ruined by the shameless monetizing of the brand at the expense of... coolness.  I mean, anything since 1983 has been pretty much a let down, so the only place the franchise has to go is up.

I can afford 10 minutes every now and then, and I meet all those criteria.  You unblock a router port with a vacuum cleaner, right?

The devil made me do it.  THE DEVIL!

Who's that lovely lady with the cat? Looks kind of familiar. And the cat even more so.

It occurs to me that other AGSers might not be as adept stalkers as Ponch thinks I am.  Here's my inspiration.

Man, I'd pay money to see a Sectaurs vs. Visionaries crossover....

The devil made me do it.  THE DEVIL!

Damn star!  Always one step ahead....

I think all the naysayers are living in the past.  This is a clearly a revolution in religious art, comparable to the Renaissance and the Impressionist movement.  Van Gogh could hardly sell a painting in his lifetime, and now they fetch millions at auction.  This is the germ of something new and powerful - interactive iconography, where the lowliest believers can affect their own rebirth of the saviour!  Jesus would love this shiznit.  The meek shall inherit the earth, the last shall be first, etc. etc.  You gotta fight the Man to love the Man, man. 

Elderly Parishioner 1, Establishment 0

Is this a mystery now?

Ooo, I love mysteries!  It was the femme-fatale that did it, wasn't it?  Wasn't it?  And if it wasn't her, it should have been.... 

I like WHAM.  That guy's alright.

Fascinating -I've never seen that technique before, but I can sure see its usefulness!  Unfortunately I've just copy & pasted the same wing for the forward & side view, which would make the wing appear to be unnaturally long in a quarter turn.  Realistically the wing probably needs to be shorter in profile, but I will play with it to see what looks best.  Thanks for sharing!

Nice!  It took me a while to figure out how to extract the archive, but this definitely works.  I've been 4 months on a new Win7 system that would not run anything pre-AGS v3.0 (i.e. anything without the Direct3D option in winsetup).  Now I'm back in the saddle, baby!  Thanks!

Her arms are doing weird stuff.

Yeah.  I'm having a hard time with the profile.  By rights the back arm should be thrown back with the front one, but it doesn't look right when she spins (the illusion of transposing the right & left arm appears and is also very weird looking).  I think I've gone as far as I can without my live model doing some walk-cycles for me, after which I can rotoscope in some more natural poses.  For anyone interested, I finished the whole rotation:

http://www.vanwijst.com/games/flutterby/full_turn_beta2.swf


The wings look a little funny, probably because they shouldn't be fully extended in profile, which makes it look like they are spinning faster in the back views.  And there are arm problems -they don't look bad in the individual frames, but they don't look natural in the spin.  I can fix both those issues with more modelling, but otherwise I'm pretty happy with how the face, body & clothes have turned out.  Any improvements on the current design are welcome.

Wow, that amnesia fortnight sounds like a whole bunch of fun.  Like MAGS, only in half the time.  But my intuition tells me the two weeks would be a gruelling 24x14 affair.  So I'd do it in a heartbeat if it was part of my job, but as an amateur I don't think it's something I'd try with my vacation time.

I've decided to go with the neanderthal look.  She's a monster -a freaking murderess - so stay the hell out of her way!  I've also roughed out her front views (still have to do a couple back ones, fix some details, etc.).  I really like abstauber's wings, but I'm pushing my height limit as it is and fear I cannot risk having them stretch above the head.  The jaw and forehead work he did also makes her cuter, I concede, but less like the BEAST that she is!!!!!

http://www.vanwijst.com/games/flutterby/turning_rough.swf

I guess I could play around with some pre-band hair, and full-body catsuits are awesome.  In the meantime here's some more outfits:


I've altered the back of the jaw as per Daniel Thomas, and experimented with some wing patterns as per... quite a few people.  Remember the fills inside the wings will be semi-transparent, so the pattern will not read quite as boldly in game.  The first suit is based on Elizabeth Hurley's outfit from the first Austin Powers movie (kind of a metallic futuristic number).  The next is an example of the camouflage suggested by Tabata.  The third uses the navy blue and golden colours based on those of police uniforms, using the generic dark tank top females tend to wear in action movies and a somewhat funkier skirt.  Pursuing that idea, the fourth costume is the same but uses browns for a more earth-tone/banana republic military look.  Comments or suggestions about the clothing direction?