Update: sept24th, 2011
After a hard 2nd year of mech, I started developing some more. Nothing is more satisfying then being able to code and create your own material (unless it's a REALLY REALLY good date).
I now have forums with more screenshots and goodies!
http://starempires.zxq.net
so here are some more recent screenshots:
These textures I made in photoshop and used crazybumb for a heightmap, and the irrlicht function to make the normal map. I'm still trying to figure out how to do specular and occlusion maps.
There is a transparent sphere on top for clouds.



I still haven't worked on the window art but here is my design so far:

And some battle with HP bars and other little graphics:

I come from a bw/sc2 background so I'm trying to make a game that feels like starcraft, but plays like space empires 5 in real time. I'm a masters terran if anyone was curious

feedback is appreciated!