Why is everyone in Africa white?

[Alaitoc]

I just bought Holy Fury and was ready to start a new game after a long hiatus but noticed that everyone in Africa is now white, and I'm absolutely positive that this wasn't the case in the past.

I know that there is most likely a portrait pack which includes portraits for this region, but frankly I think it's beyond borderline offensive that Africa is whitewashed if you don't stump up cash. I'm not usually one to rant about racism, but I think this crosses a line since characters have been actively made white who were not before.

Is there any chance the portraits can at least be returned to what they were?

 

[Ols]

This is clearly a bug and I suggest you repost this in the bug reports subforum.

 

[CrackdToothGrin]

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...eryone-in-africa-is-white-3-0-update.1127999/

This was already posted in the bug forums and marked as resolved.

 

[Truewhit]

Originally without Africa portraits you get them with Muslim portraits that have dark skin. Now they updated Muslim portraits to have lighter skin Africans without portraits have lighter skin.

 

[Alaitoc]

Yes, it was posted in the bug report forum and resolved as not being a bug, so it doesn't belong there.

 

[CrackdToothGrin]

I understand what you're getting at, but using muslimgfx as a default for non-existent, non-Euro packs is intended behavior in terms of game mechanics.

 

[Alaitoc]

I'm sure that it is intended, but I object to the intent. There was at least an attempt to make Africans look like Africans and not British people with funny hats before. The fact that people immediately think it's a bug (when Paradox doesn't) should speak volumes.

 

[jumbi]

They aren't using the default European Gothic portraits, they're using Arabic portraits. As Arabic portraits received a much-needed update, characters using their portraits, quite naturally, use the updated portraits.

 

[Zsrai]

I'm sure that it is intended, but I object to the intent. There was at least an attempt to make Africans look like Africans and not British people with funny hats before. The fact that people immediately think it's a bug (when Paradox doesn't) should speak volumes.

No there certainly was not. Without the African portraits they didn't look anything like Africans and there was no attempt to make them look like Africans. If you don't have African (or Mongol, either of the Indian, Persian, etc.) packs they default to Arab gfx, just like all of the rest (Norse, Celtic, Russian, German, etc.) default to Western. Only Western and Arab are in the base game. Just because Arab gfx got an upgrade doesn't mean that it's a new bug, or a bug at all, and PDS doesn't particularly have to address it.

 

[WJS]

If you want African portraits, buy the African Portraits pack. It's $0.99 right now. You can also get an Ultimate Portraits Pack on Steam for all the portraits.

 

[The Shacks]

I get your point but your smoking crack if you think those portrait packs are whitefolks xD They are levantine arabs i'd say, which is just as jarring. But you made it out to be some sort of racial issue of making blacks white when actually I think they probably just forgot that default arab is now more levantine than dark dark tanned peninsula arabs

 

[CrackdToothGrin]

In case it matters, the characters themselves are all hand-sculpted in ZBrush off of a large collection of Arabian resource stock and a significant amount of back and forth went into identifying a proper skin tone. The region this pack covers goes almost thirty (30) degrees north to south and contains individuals darker than the threshold for what would be considered "black" in the US all the way to being lighter than members of my extended family, who are of mostly North German, Scandinavian, and British Isles descent.

A similar amount of concern in design consideration has gone into almost every pack with a cultural sphere containing a varying amount of skin tones. Honestly, though, it was easier to settle on one for this set compared to the original Indians.

In a Perfect World™ we could have built-in skin tone variance but have to settle for a "representative tone" and that's something that will inevitably cause disagreements in opinion. I understand OP's concerns, because for someone without the requisite DLC purchases and/or knowledge of how the underlying mechanics work; the change is very jarring.

 

[Castorem]

If you don't have the Mongol and African facepacks Genghis Khan will look like Mansa Musa's brother, as they use the same muslimgfx portraits without any DLCs.

 

[Mauer]

Originally the map was smaller, Sub-saharan Africa was not in the game and the small part of Non-Arab Africa that was didn't look as out of place with the darker skin tone portraits. So it's just a consequence of the game evolving over time.

 

[elvain]

I just bought Holy Fury and was ready to start a new game after a long hiatus but noticed that everyone in Africa is now white, and I'm absolutely positive that this wasn't the case in the past.

I know that there is most likely a portrait pack which includes portraits for this region, but frankly I think it's beyond borderline offensive that Africa is whitewashed if you don't stump up cash. I'm not usually one to rant about racism, but I think this crosses a line since characters have been actively made white who were not before.

Is there any chance the portraits can at least be returned to what they were?

buy African portrait pack which is now for 0,99€
https://store.steampowered.com/app/210897/Crusader_Kings_II_African_Portraits/

or if you don't have this insanely large amount of money, I can spare one small beer and buy it for you.

just calm down and don't look for racism or white-wsahing where there is none

 

[Dakilla TM]

To OP,

Do you have any of the African portrait packs? West African or East African?
- If yes, then they should show up as intended.
- If not, then the game will use the default "muslimgfx" portraits, which are the Arab portraits.

Also, when the game was released back in 2012, there were only two portraits. White European and Orange Arab/Everyone else. All Europeans would look the same. In turn, all non Europeans would also look the same. From the chieftains of Mali to Genghis Khan himself, they all used Arab portraits.

So to fix the "white Africans", get the necessary African portraits. They're very cheap and will take care of this "issue".

 

[Evangeline]

I actually find it quite heartening how many people have paid to be black with this portrait pack!

But maybe THIS pack should definitely be automatically included in early access copies of new dlc for youtubers supposed to advertise the game. I find it so odd when they present it to their audience without a single portrait pack included.

 

[The Shacks]

Thats lazy youtubers fault ;p Suppose i cant really comment cos i buy every xpac as it comes out (aside from some of the music ones). Maybe if im black i'd be a little miffed I had to pay for my skin colour to be represented but then again one could argue its called Crusader Kings, its not really about africa. THEN AGAIN, pdox could probably take the hit from making everything pre Reaper's Due free at this point - infact it'd probably drive up numbers and sales.

 

[Starcomet]

Strange, I do not have the African Portraits pack I think and all Mandes and other Africans are black for me. The Chinese look Chinese and same with the Mongols. Do any of the DLC's add portraits?

 

[Evangeline]

@Starcomet: you seem to lack Holy Fury, which changes the Arab and Berber portraits to look lighter. Your own Arab portraits are so dark that they are acceptable as African portraits (though not the real ones), which is why they were always used for Africans if you didn't have the portrait pack. Now that the differences between Arabs and Africans are more noticeable, it stands out much more.