[FLAGS] Flag Tweak Mod Pack Conversion... Thing.

[Thoughtful Punk]

sup

Okay so first off kudos to Paradox on the flags they included with the game. Not only did they come up with a unique design for every country and government type, they also made them at a much higher quality than they have in previous games. So well done there you loveable Swedes.

HOWEVER, I am a nitpicky person by nature and there are tons of little historical goofs and weird graphical choices throughout the basic set. The flag pack needs some tweaking and I intend to tweak!

I'm gonna try and stick to these basic principles:

1) Have a different flag for every government type.
2) Use historical flags whenever possible.
3) Make sure ahistorical flags are at least historically plausible.
4) Avoid overly-modern looking flags.
5) Use vector graphics and nice colours. No resized gifs.
6) Have "sharp" edges on crosses and tricolours (i.e. avoid that half-pixel blurriness that you get when a stripe is 21.333333 px high)
7) Draw everything with proper proportions. (So like have an actual 2:3 flag for Great Britain, not the weirdly cropped 1:2 version in the default flag set)
8) Make sure every flag in the pack is legal in Germany and Austria

of course these principles are all wildly contradictory so basically I'll just be doing whatever I think looks good.

UPDATE: I am treating the Default flag like a second Republic flag since it's always used by Democracies. I lay out the rules for the Default/Republic flags here.

THE STORY SO FAR:
1. Canada (CAN, COL, NEW, QUE) - download
2. Australasia (AST, NZL) - download
3. Central America (COS, ELS, GUA, HON, NIC, UCA) - download
4. Greece (BYZ, CRE, CYP, GRE, ION) - download
5. Gran Colombia (CLM, ECU, PNM, VNZ) - download
6. The Southern Cone (ARG, CHL, PRG, URU) - download
7. The Rest of South America (BOL, BRZ, PEU) - download
8. The British Isles (ENG, IRE, SCO) - download
9. Indochina, Etc. (BUR, CAM, DAI, LUA, SIA, WIA) - download
10. Maritime Southeast Asia (ATJ, BRU, JAV, JOH, PHI) - download
11. Mexico and the Caribbean (CUB, DOM, HAI, MEX) - download
12. Yugoslavia (BOS, CRO, MON, SER, SLO, YUG) - download
13. Nordic Countries (DEN, FIN, ICL, NOR, SCA, SWE) - download
14. Central Asian Khanates (BUK, KHI, KOK) - download
15. Transcaucasia (ARM, AZB, GEO) - download

Current Progress: 320/1050 flags (30%)

Still to come: (ABU, AFG, ALB, ALD, ANH, ARM, AUS, AWA, BAD, BAL, BAS, BAV, BEL, BER, BHO, BHU, BIK, BOH, BRA, BRE, BUL, BUN, CAL, CAT, CHE, CHI, COB, CRI, CSA, CZH, DES, DZG, EGY, EST, ETH, FLA, FRA, FRM, GER, GWA, GXI, HAM, HAN, HAW, HDJ, HEK, HES, HND, HOL, HUN, HYD, IND, IRQ, ISR, ITA, JAI, JAP, JAS, JOD, KAL, KAS, KOR, KRA, KUK, KUT, LAD, LAT, LIB, LIP, LIT, LOM, LUB, LUC, LUX, MAD, MAK, MAN, MCK, MEC, MEI, MEW, MGL, MOD, MOL, MOR, MTC, MUG, MYS, NAG, NAL, NAS, NEJ, NEN, NEP, NET, NGF, OLD, OMA, ORA, ORI, PAN, PAP, PAR, PER, POL, POR, PRU, ROM, RUS, RUT, SAF, SAR, SAX, SCH, SFG, SHI, SIC, SIE, SIK, SIN, SLV, SOK, SPA, SWI, SXI, TEX, TIB, TRA, TRE, TRI, TRN, TUN, TUR, TUS, UKR, USA, VEN, WAL, WEI, WLL, WUR, XBI, XIN, YEM, YNN, ZAN, ZUL)

eventually I'm going to go through every tag in the game and make a complete pack, which will be available for download in this post. Until then, I'm just going to go randomly from tag to tag, making little mini-packs.

Like this one here in the very next post!!!

[Thoughtful Punk]

PART I - CANADA AND SOME PROVINCES

(oh by the way I'm also going to write up wordy explanations for each flag because I'm obsessive like that.)



Democracy/Republic: There actually was a very-short lived state which called itself the "Republic of Canada" following the 1837 rebellion. Its flag was based on that of France, with two stars representing Upper and Lower Canada and a crescent moon representing the clandestine Hunters' Lodges that fought for the liberation of Canada from the British.
Monarchy: In EU3 and HOI3, 1:2 ratio red ensigns were just squashed to fit the ~2:3 or 1:1 ratio in the game. Not very pretty. V2 improves on this a little by keeping the union Jack scaled at 1:2 while resizing it to be half the width of the flag. This removes the squishing aspect, but makes the flag look weirdly proportioned and empty. The canton in this pack is specifically drawn to look good at 46x32 pixels (as near as I can get to a quarter of the flag). The particular Canadian Flag I'm using here is the official model that was used between 1868 and 1921, which didn't have the crown or the wreath of maple leafs.
Communist: This is a more "old-school" version of the Communist Part of Canada logo, with different colours and a less-stylized maple leaf.
Fascist: The National Unity Party of Canada had a well-known flag with a swastika in the centre. But since swastikas are like totally illegal I've replaced it with the Canadian Army badge that Paradox used in its basic flag set.



Democracy/Republic: No particular historical basis for this one, I just think it looks a bit nicer than that "REPUBLIC OF COLUMBIA" flag. The straight-ray sun is supposed to resemble the one on BC's arms.
Monarchy: Basically the flag that Paradox included with the addition of a white disc around the badge.
Communist: Ahistorical design with hammer and sickle inside a full version of the sun from the modern BC flag.
Fascist: Paradox's design, but with the EU3-style German Eagle replaced with a much more Canadian-looking lion passant.

The modern BC flag is included as COL_bonus. And a blue Ensign with BC's original badge from 1870 is included as COL_bonus2.



Democracy/Republic: The tricolour, same as Paradox.
Monarchy: The Newfoundland red ensign from 1904.
Communist: A generic hammer and sickle in Newfoundland Tricolour colours. Newfoundland did have a green tree on pink as its flag at one point, but it was flown by the Native Society, which was established "to protect the imagined rights and privileges of landed planters from the flood of newcomers". So ideologically it doesn't make much sense as a communist flag.
Fascist: It does however make perfect sense as a fascist flag. I've taken out the lozenge on Paradox's version and added in the clasped hands which were apparently on the historical version.

Newfoundland's original flag from 1862 is included as NEW_bonus.



Democracy/Republic: The Patriote flag, same as Paradox.
Monarchy: The Carillon flag, but with the fleurs-de-lis correctly on the diagonal instead of upright.
Communist: The FLQ flag. It's a bit outside the historical period, I know, but I don't think the design looks TOO anachronistic (no more so than the one Paradox provided, anyway).
Fascist: This is the flag of a group known as the Chevaliers de l'Indépendance. Again, it's a bit out of the time period and I don't think these people were particularly fascist or anything, but Quebec didn't have a home-grown fascist movement. And come on, doesn't that flag just scream "evil Quebec"?

This one also comes with three bonus flags. QUE_bonus is the modern Quebec flag, QUE_bonus2 is a plain blue flag with the 1868 badge of Quebec in the centre (kind of like a blue ensign minus the union jack), and QUE_dominion is a blue ensign.

Anyway, that's enough of my rambling. Here's a mini-pack containing new flags for all four Canadian tags: http://www.mediafire.com/?lqvdbfv8872b8ku It even works with the Demo! (Not that you'd be likely to see any of it.) Install by unzipping them to the /gfx/flags/ folder.

[Krispa40]

very good, I'm doing something, looking for information and update the flags, there are some serious errors, the Colombian Communist flag has drawn a AK47 .... Why not try to unify the efforts of the people who like the issue of flags in a megamod? (Translated by google)

[Verenti]

I am not a fan of flags sets that don't include the original flag in one of the possible four revolutionary flags, and I think you could come up with something creative for the fascist canada instead of the Army emblem. But your work otherwise is good. There maybe should be a blue ensign for Quebec if its released by the British as a Dominion.

[Thoughtful Punk]

There maybe should be a blue ensign for Quebec if its released by the British as a Dominion.

How's this? I've added the TGA to the zip in the first post. Can't imagine it'd be the most popular flag in Quebec though.

Why not try to unify the efforts of the people who like the issue of flags in a megamod?

There's probably going to be a megamod coming out of the V2V thread at a certain point.

[Verenti]

How's this? I've added the TGA to the zip in the first post. Can't imagine it'd be the most popular flag in Quebec though.

Likely not, but I doubt Queen Victoria would allow them use a revolutionary flag, after she graciously granted them autonomy

[Thoughtful Punk]

I suppose that's a fair point.

Anyway, more flags:

PART II - AUSTRALASIA



Democracy: The Australian Federation flag (This was the default AST flag in Vicky 1, I think.)
Monarchy: The basic Australian flag, modified to be at the right proportion.
Republic: I'm not sure the Eureka flag makes total sense as a fascist flag, so I've moved it here and replaced the super-modern Kangaroo flag.
Communist: Again, a stylized kangaroo doesn't exactly scream 19th century to me (or communism for that matter.) This is an ahistorical design with a crossed Pickaxe and Spade instead of a hammer and sickle. You know, miners or whatever.
Fascist: This is a historical variation on the Eureka flag used during anti-Chinese riots.

I've also included a set of state flags in the pack, just in case any Australian modders are looking to use them. A black version of the Eureka flag is included as AST_fascist2 and a different version of the communist flag is included as AST_communist2.



Democracy: The United Tribes flag.
Monarchy: Standard NZ flag.
Republic: The Republic flag in the game is a proposal from like 2002 and the Fascist flag doesn't look very fascist. I've moved the Silver Fern here and used a less stylized representation.
Communist: I have no idea where Paradox's design came from. This one is kind of loosely based on it I guess. The single red star on the white disc is replaced with a southern cross on a white disc and I've added an "NZ" at the bottom. Also, the whole thing is now with simple stripes instead of that weird curvy... thing.
Fascist: This is a New Zealand Neo-nazi flag with the offending cross in the centre replaced with the stylized silver fern from Paradox's fascist flag.

The pack also contains the black version of the United Tribes flag as NZL_bonus.

Download is here: http://www.mediafire.com/?qd4kh6ql9lqoe1x

[Veldmaarschalk]

Flag mods are always nice !

I don't know how big this thread is going to be, but it might be a good idea to have links to the different packs in your first post. That way people can easily find them, especially when this thread gets bigger.

[John Forseti]

Anyone want to make some alternate california flags based on the pear?

Maybe when the full game is released someone could also add in an event so that if California forms you could choose between the two sets?

[Austen]

Historical or not, that Canadian republic flag is incredibly ugly. I'd have to change that.

Austen

[ThePutty]

I suppose that's a fair point.

Anyway, more flags:

PART II - AUSTRALASIA



Default: The Australian Federation flag (This was the default AST flag in Vicky 1, I think.)
Monarchy: The basic Australian flag, modified to be at the right proportion.
Republic: I'm not sure the Eureka flag makes total sense as a fascist flag, so I've moved it here and replaced the super-modern Kangaroo flag.
Communist: Again, a stylized kangaroo doesn't exactly scream 19th century to me (or communism for that matter.) This is an ahistorical design with a crossed Pickaxe and Spade instead of a hammer and sickle. You know, miners or whatever.
Fascist: This is a historical variation on the Eureka flag used during anti-Chinese riots.

I've also included a set of state flags in the pack, just in case any Australian modders are looking to use them.

I dunno if the eureka design works well for a republic. I always thought this flag would be the best option:

[hoi2geek]

PART I - CANADA AND SOME PROVINCES

(oh by the way I'm also going to write up wordy explanations for each flag because I'm obsessive like that.)



Default (and Monarchy): In EU3 and HOI3, 1:2 ratio red ensigns were just squashed to fit the ~2:3 or 1:1 ratio in the game. Not very pretty. V2 improves on this a little by keeping the union Jack scaled at 1:2 while resizing it to be half the width of the flag. This removes the squishing aspect, but makes the flag look weirdly proportioned and empty. The canton in this pack is specifically drawn to look good at 46x32 pixels (as near as I can get to a quarter of the flag). The particular Canadian Flag I'm using here is the official model that was used between 1868 and 1921, which didn't have the crown or the wreath of maple leafs.
Republic: There actually was a very-short lived state which called itself the "Republic of Canada" following the 1837 rebellion. Its flag was based on that of France, with two stars representing Upper and Lower Canada and a crescent moon representing the clandestine Hunters' Lodges that fought for the liberation of Canada from the British.
Communist: This is a more "old-school" version of the Communist Part of Canada logo, with different colours and a less-stylized maple leaf.
Fascist: The National Unity Party of Canada had a well-known flag with a swastika in the centre. But since swastikas are like totally illegal I've replaced it with the Canadian Army badge that Paradox used in its basic flag set.

Why not the modern flag of Canada as the republic flag? And the 1921-1957 flag (1957 variation) as the Monarchy flag?


Also I got several designs for South Africa:

Normal/Monarchy: The de facto flag of South Africa from 1910-1928
Republic: Modern-day South Africa's flag
Communist: ANC flag without the ANC logo
Fascist: Flag of South Africa 1928-1994 without the British Union Jack

So are you going to consider my proposals?

[gws5597]

Also I got several designs for South Africa:

Normal/Monarchy: The de facto flag of South Africa from 1910-1928
Republic: Modern-day South Africa's flag
Communist: ANC flag without the ANC logo
Fascist: Flag of South Africa 1928-1994 without the British Union Jack

So are you going to consider my proposals?

Personally...

1. Yes.
2. Yes. I think this is already in the game...
3. I prefer the one that's already there.
4. Keep the apartheid-era flag, but don't change it.

[gws5597]

My suggestion would be this:


Ordinary/Republic


Communist

(I don't know what the pixel size of the flags in the game is. These flags no doubt would have to be shortened.)

[Verenti]

Why not the modern flag of Canada as the republic flag? And the 1921-1957 flag (1957 variation) as the Monarchy flag?


Also I got several designs for South Africa:

Normal/Monarchy: The de facto flag of South Africa from 1910-1928
Republic: Modern-day South Africa's flag
Communist: ANC flag without the ANC logo
Fascist: Flag of South Africa 1928-1994 without the British Union Jack

So are you going to consider my proposals?

Modern Canadian flag has nothing to do with a Republic. Its a symbol of the Monarchy. Plus its anachronistic, designed in 1964 and by commitee, and ugly as sin. If there was going to be a Republican Canadian flag, it probably shouldn't use Royal symbols and Royal Colours, anyhow.

[GregElSho]

Also I got several designs for South Africa:

Normal/Monarchy: The de facto flag of South Africa from 1910-1928
Republic: Modern-day South Africa's flag
Communist: ANC flag without the ANC logo
Fascist: Flag of South Africa 1928-1994 without the British Union Jack

So are you going to consider my proposals?

Well, Modern-day flag of South Africa is off-the-charts anachronistic (despite its stunning beauty), and OP doesn't seem to be kind with anachronic flags.

[Thoughtful Punk]

Well, Modern-day flag of South Africa is off-the-charts anachronistic (despite its stunning beauty), and OP doesn't seem to be kind with anachronic flags.

Basically yeah, I'm going to be slaughtering anachronisms whenever I think there's a better alternative.

In South Africa's case, I'm probably going to use the apartheid-era flag for Republic and find some Boer flag for fascist. Or possibly come up with something based on the National Party's flag. As excellently designed as the modern SA flag is, it just doesn't fit the period. (Plus the modern flag is already in the game and there's no fun in modding in what's already there.)

(I don't know what the pixel size of the flags in the game is. These flags no doubt would have to be shortened.)

The size is 93x64.

[Legosim]

Basically yeah, I'm going to be slaughtering anachronisms whenever I think there's a better alternative.

In South Africa's case, I'm probably going to use the apartheid-era flag for Republic and find some Boer flag for fascist. Or possibly come up with something based on the National Party's flag. As excellently designed as the modern SA flag is, it just doesn't fit the period. (Plus the modern flag is already in the game and there's no fun in modding in what's already there.)



The size is 93x64.

If you don't mind me asking, how exactly dose one go about making a flag that will work in the V2 engine (punny...)? Can I do it in paint, or is there a program, or what?

Thanks.

[The Wookiee]

If you don't mind me asking, how exactly dose one go about making a flag that will work in the V2 engine (punny...)? Can I do it in paint, or is there a program, or what?

Thanks.

It has to be the right size (93x64), have the proper file name and be in .tga (targa) format. You need something a little more advanced than Paint in order to do that.

[Sovetskysoyuz]

Great work! Do you mind if I provide your Canadian flags with the Canadian Flavour Mod that I'm working on? Also, did you have any thoughts on the flags for the Metis Confederacy (MTC)?