How about this for the autonomous magical constructs, actually... floating protomechanical heads with all kinds of glass tubing and arcane equipment projecting out of them (fulfilling Kwok's desire to have some link to the ship), and each type (aggressive/defensive/etc.) could have a different emotion as well as a different color, so the aggressive could be red and angry, while the defensive could be blue and wary, and the others... hmm, depends on what they are - I suppose there could be a Conservationist which is green and smiling and and reduces maintenance, or a - hmm, this is starting to remind me of Star Trek Mod's Captains; why can't you place Captains of different types on ships before you've researched Master Computers? Just use recolored population pics or something like PBC does for the various avatars
(Great work though, CovertJaguar... have you submitted any of your work to Malfador to see if you can make art for SE5? Speaking of which, has anyone actually heard back about that? I remember one person said he was turned down, but I haven't heard back yet and I haven't heard any other reports...
)