faction ICONS of our choice - like in homeworld

The biggest problem with custom icons is multiplayer, where some people will upload inappropriate ones.  If we could trust everyone, that'd be no problem, but there are just too many people who act like children (not necessarily overlapping the actual category of children) out there.

I've singled this out for one very important reason. GW's policies. Pretty much, you can't mix 40K and something else in, say, a game.

Now, if you did this for your own personal use, and had it as a mod you played that changed the icons, that's one thing. But as a custom icon set compatible with multiplayer? No go, buddy. No go.

Oh gosh.  Half the players would have various penis-shaped icons.  There would also be boobs, etc.  Maybe it's better the way it is now.

you can change the icons for yourself and it will not effect multi-player.

Textures sounds and music can be in a mod and still connect to everyone

And sadly, there would also be far far worse.

Sharing is part of the fun.  Sadly, there are always those who abuse privileges.

The whole point was multiplayer, the changes are usually for atmosphere where other players are concerned not myself. There is always one Id10t who will do things like put rude symbols in. 

In this case I say we also ban the renaming of planets and ships, especially because people may rename them to 40k names. C'mon people be reasonable. Everybody knows not to use 40k, did it ever stop people at LANs ? no. Did anybody make any money? no Did anybody care? no Was it relics fault for making it possible to choose? no Lets stop being scared of shadows and minute possibilities. Nothing would get done in the world with these attitudes. WAIT... don't go outside, no doubt somebody will use that Bus to hit you... we really should not have built buses, they have a chance of being abused. I mean look at half the forum names here... hm hmm dirty sanchez. anyone offended? 

sheez people. You cannot control what the whole world does and the cause is immaturity not the game! 

Post hoc ergo propter hoc

In homeworld2 and dow1 it was a huge success...... did those games get a bad reputation?

Post hoc ergo propter hoc

A name different from graphic iconography, because you can't actually copyright a name. You can trademark it, but I doubt that GW would go through the trouble of trademarking every single name.

Toss in iconography, and you have a whole different ball game.

There's a difference between including an image that is infringing in your game (sidestepping the thorny issue of how similar it must be to constitute infringement), and an end-user uploading an icon that is infringing into the game.  There are legal protections for service providers so they do not face crippling liability for the potentially infringing actions of their users.  So long as Ironclad doesn't actively encourage that sort of thing, they'd almost certainly be in the clear due to the small scale of the infringement (low-res icons).

To date GW have not sued any particular gamer for using 40k icons, they generally just shut them down and ask the modder to cease and dissist. Even if they did it would not be ironclad they would be talking to. I can give you examples of many mods for games that GW have shutdown but the original game that provided the platform is obviously not at fault. Its called freedom and choice. Similar to gun manufacturers not being responsible for murders.

Has anybody seen transformers iconography on real cars?

Yes but from memory you were replacing current icon choices. Also the need would be for other people to see it through synching of icons just like names.

More power to you.

Anyways, the player setup system needs some refurbishing. Anyone agree? You should not be have to constantly change a pictureset just to get a certain picture for a faction you like. There also needs to be more customization options.