Your last graphic is the Robot Command Center. I always thought it was weird the RCC didn't have tubes in the original.
Ah yeah, I can see that. All of the other things you mention about the command center, I remember. And now that you mention it, I would agree with you that it's the RCC. As I was making this graphic, I was also finding it odd that there was a helipad.
If you have come to terms with managing color palettes in 2D graphics, I would be happy to hear some of thoughts on the subject. Either/Both from an artistic and technical standpoint. It is something I'm not good at, but interests me.
So I looked at the link that Leeor put up after our previous color discussion (
http://forum.outpost2.net/index.php/topic,5997.msg85262.html#msg85262). The philosophy itself is a good read, but I wasn't sure how well it would cross over for OPHD exactly, since a lot of the graphics in the first examples are more on the cartoony side vice "gritty real" side. Also, the palette itself looks to be intended as a blending palette, vice straight colors. Since I'm building these graphics as models, the shading is all sort of taken care of in the modeling process. (As opposed to if I was hand-drawing, where I would blend the colors myself.)
One thing that seemed to be most applicable was a further down post that included this graphic.
I did work toward implementing a palette (or list of materials) similar to this. Turns out the top row is mainly where the terrain-type colors are coming from, and the bottom row are the "accent" colors of the buildings. The challenge still comes from the fact that the buildings are using a large amount of coloring that comes from the top row (specifically the gray-ish and off-white in the center). These colors are also in some of the terrain tile sets, so it still washes out a bit.
Here is the palette I started with as a baseline, though some of the colors deviate. I haven't tried utilizing a different base color for the buildings, but perhaps I should give that a try and see how things come out.
I also suffer a bit from "creative paralysis" at times, where I tend to over analyze and simply end up doing nothing. So after looking at the palette for a bit, I simply went with it and started leaning toward recreating OP1's graphics. I figure if I can at least get through a round of the graphics, that's something. Then perhaps I can come back and make a second pass to unify colors and other aspects at a later date. At least that way something would get finished...maybe?
Cheers