Custom Coats of Arms

[HawkSeraph]

EDIT: The issue has been resolved, thanks!
Hello modders!
I want to create my own dynasty for the game. I've created a character, assigned him a dynasty and counties, everything works fine (I followed the instructions by ParadoxianLP)
So, I'm quite happy that I've managed that. But now I'd like to take it a step further and add a coat of arms of my own choosing. However, this has turned out to be quite the ordeal! I've found good instructions here and here. First, I tried to define my CoA through the variables one is given in the dynasties.txt (The corresponding instructions can be viewed in %gamedir%\interface\coats_of_arms.txt)

705 = {
	name="Rurikovich"
	culture = russian
	coat_of_arms = {
		template = 0
		layer = {
			texture = 3
			texture_internal = 39
			emblem = 0
			color = 0
			color = 0
			color = 0
		}
	}
}

However, I couldn't really figure out how to do this, since the game always crashed when it tried to generate the crest. So I decided to took the (probaly better, anyways) other way, that of the historical dynasties, which have a defined CoA every game (If you have the DLC, that is). Since I can't find my dynasties.tga; I cannibalized the duchy flags. I chose the duchy of connacht (which is my Avatar). I then modified the dynasties.txt to point to texture 5, which I defined as follows in the coats_of_arms.txt:

texture = {
			file = "gfx\\coats_of_arms\\custom.tga"
			size = { x = 1 y = 1 }
			noOfFrames = 1
			color = 0
			emblem = no
			random = no # Do not use for random CoAs
		}

This should have given me the flag of the connacht duchy as a dynasty CoA, right? Nope. This is what surprised me most: My new CoA was just the White&Blue of the flag! The bird and the arm have been removed ingame. How (or why), I cannot fathom. And this is what I'm asking of you: Can you help me understand this?

 

[Arcvalons]

I don't get it either...
I copied the same text of the Capet dynasty, but changed the colors, yet it doesn't make a difference.

 

[Darrigan]

Make sure to put "texture_internal = 0" and NOT "texture_internal = 1". The first one always is 0.
If that's not it, please post what you edited in dynasties.txt

 

[HawkSeraph]

Make sure to put "texture_internal = 0" and NOT "texture_internal = 1". The first one always is 0.
If that's not it, please post what you edited in dynasties.txt

/massive facepalm
Yeah, the zero-based indexing got me again! Thanks! It works now. It's still interesting how the game reacted, though.

 

[Darrigan]

Hehe... No problem! Have fun!

 

[InnocentIII]

If anyone produces an explanation written in Captain Dummy Talk, please let everyone know. If I could take a simple .bmp and make it a CoA, that would be great. I need to make one for my AAR.

 

[unmerged(243088)]

Agree with InnocentIII. The explanations already provided are certainly helpful, but dummies like me need something like a step-by-step guide for this kind of thing. I already know how to create a character and a dynasty yet I can't seem to grasp assigning CoAs to them.

 

[Keanon]

Do you want to assign a selfmade picture to be the coa or use the games coa generator, telling it how to look?

Eitherway, you need to be able to open tga's, and a good software for looking into the text files, like notepad++. It's possible that if I'm allowed to release my mod I'll add a guide to both, but at the top of my head I'm a bit unsure where I'd start.

 

[Arcvalons]

http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum...at-of-arms&p=13439049&viewfull=1#post13439049

That's a relatively simple guide.
You can open TGAs with Paint.NET which is free
simple notepad can handle text files in my case

 

[HawkSeraph]

Notepad can handle the textfiles easy enough. For manipulating the TGA files, I simply use GIMP
You need to create a dynasty first. The tutorial by ParadoxianLP I mentioned above will tell you everything important. It should look like this

705 = {
	name="Rurikovich"
	culture = russian
	coat_of_arms = {
		template = 0
		layer = {
			texture = 5
			texture_internal = 0
			emblem = 0
			color = 0
			color = 0
			color = 0
		}
	}
}

Culture, the number '705' and the dynasty name can be anything YOU want, of course. Th epart that interests us here of the one under coat_of_arms. It should be ecactly the same.

Now, open the coat_of_arms.txt under %gamedir%/interface. Again, only a part of that file interests us! Which is the one contained by exclamation marks.

textures = {
		texture = {
			file = "gfx\\coats_of_arms\\pattern.tga"
			size = { x = 10 y = 3 }
			noOfFrames = 27
			color = 2
		}
		texture = {
			file = "gfx\\coats_of_arms\\pattern2.tga"
			size = { x = 10 y = 2 }
			noOfFrames = 17
			color = 3
		}
		texture = {
			file = "gfx\\coats_of_arms\\pattern3.tga"
			size = { x = 10 y = 2 }
			noOfFrames = 19
			color = 3
			emblem = no
		}
		
		texture = {
			file = "gfx\\coats_of_arms\\dynasties.tga"
			size = { x = 16 y = 4 }
			noOfFrames = 51
			color = 0
			random = no # Do not use for random CoAs
		}
		texture = {
			file = "gfx\\coats_of_arms\\pattern4.tga"
			size = { x = 10 y = 2 }
			noOfFrames = 11
			color = 2
			emblem = no
		}
		[FONT=Arial Black]texture = {
			file = "gfx\\coats_of_arms\\YOURCUSTOMCREST.tga"
			size = { x = 1 y = 1 }
			noOfFrames = 1
			color = 0
			emblem = no
			random = no # Do not use for random CoAs
		        }[/FONT]
		# WHEN ADDING NEW, ALWAYS ADD AT THE END !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111
	}

The bold part is what you have add.
Now we are going to create 'YOURCUSTOMCREST.tga' It has to be 128x128 pixels big. This one contains the picture you want to use as your Coat of Arms. Just create a new file, paint your picture, and save it with the filetype set to .tga! The correct path for it would be (e.g.) C:\Program Files (x86)\Paradox Interactive\Crusader Kings II\gfx\coats_of_arms\YOURCUSTOMCREST.tga. You can look at how such a file looks by opening some files under %gamedir%/gfx/flags

That's all there is to it.

 

[Xender]

Has there not been any Paradox support for this issue? You would think they'd be more forthcoming on how do this stuff.

 

[Orinsul]

128x128 is what size flags are right? So if you want to use a pre-existing flag as a CoA for a specific dynasty, can you just link it there? or does it have to be a new file in the CoA directory?

 

[knuckey]

128x128 is what size flags are right? So if you want to use a pre-existing flag as a CoA for a specific dynasty, can you just link it there? or does it have to be a new file in the CoA directory?

For my custom CoAs Ive been using the template called plain.tga in C:\Crusader Kings II\gfx\coats_of_arms which is 80x84 in size. 128x128 appears to be too big.

 

[Keanon]

The shields only actually use 64x67 as far as I have been able to see, so that's what all the internals in my patterns for my CoA mod is using, they look like this:

The grey and green won't be seen in your shield.

Edit: Now, confusingly, the dynasties.tga that is used for the DLC DOES use 128x128 shields, but stille has to fit within the 64x67 since that is what the shield frame supports.

 

[Orinsul]

Ive just tested it and it worked brilliantly, i couldnt work it out at first on account of how i was trying in the moslem texture box not the christian one, but once i sorted that out it worked perfectly.

		texture = {
			file = "gfx\\flags\\k_seljuk_turks.tga"
			size = { x = 1 y = 1 }
			noOfFrames = 1
			color = 0
			emblem = no
			random = no # Do not use for random CoAs
	  }

And it seems to work just fine, that said it is only one test so maybe it wouldnt work with more complicated ones, it is centred though and i guess if it was too big it wouldnt be. They changed something to do with CoA sizes in the most recent patch so if theres too bigging going on that might be something to check or else who knows, its all a mystery at this point really

 

[Keanon]

Above will work, but you can only use 1 shield per texture then, which will quickly clutter the file, compared to a few 50 shields a piece files.

Edit: I think the reason it can read both 128 and the other is that the "size = { x = 1 y = 1 }" part tells it how much each square is in the picture. So if it had said "size = { x = 2 y = 2 }" and " noOfFrames = 4" it would probably try to load 64x64 pictures out of your 128x128 one.

I guess it's testable for later.