From what I've heard, characters like the G-Man and Alyx were 6-7k triangles with 3x512x512 textures, however I'm betting those are lowered a bit when it comes to multiplayer characters. I'm currently aiming for a 5k characater with normal maps, a 512x512 map and a 1024x1024 map. Am I still too high?

I've worked a lot with the source engine. Alyx was around 6k (mostly in the face)if I remember correctly, and yes she had 3 512x512 maps. You should be fine with a 5k character, so long as you don't plan on having a few hundred of them on screen.

A lot of characters (like the combine I believe) have just two 512x512 maps (as in 2 diffuse (with alpha set for glow maps in the shader) 2 normal maps)

One 1024x1024 for a character is plenty. If you have some extra armor or weapony doo-dads on the character, an extra smaller map could be ok.

Well the thing is I'm making a soldier, with randomized heads so each head would have a different face texture...maybe 1024x1024 plus the head is a 256x256...

or a 1024x512 ? might come handy if you use the 256x256 separately, i know it might seem the same as 2x 512x512 , but it allows you more uvw space, hence more uvw optimization [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

2x 512 and 1x 256 sounds more logical to me..

That way you could in theory allow for customisable gear or pants or whatever aswell

3 x 512 should be plenty in my experience. Or a 1024 x 1024. Also depends if you use the alpha channels.

Just a small point...source likes less materials rather than smaller textures. Lots of materials = chuggy game. Combine textures into one sheet where possible.

http://developer.valvesoftware.com/w...ation_Overview

Polygons counts for some of the Half-Life 2 characters:

* Soldiers: 4682
* Police: 3852
* Resistance: 4976
* Zombie: 4290
* Helicopter: 6415
* Strider: 6444
* Alyx: 8323