MOD: Lotharingia and Lowlands

[Darrigan]

NOTE: This mod is outdated and will no longer be updated. Though, it is implemented in several other great mods like SWMH, which can be found here!

Anyone is free to use (parts of) my work in their mod. A simple credit line is all I ask for

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Hello there!

I created a mod that redraws the Lowlands (Present-day Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg - Benelux) and rebalances the area.

It's only a small mod, focused on a small part of the map. Though, it could be used by anyone who's planning a larger mod. Feel free to do so, as long as you drop my name in the credit line ;-)

So... What is this mod about?

To start with, I have "updated" the map of the lowlands (= Belgium + Netherlands). To my opinion, the area was not entirely accurate. But I don't blame the devs. Those guy had to map all of Europe, I simply messed around with my home region. Nevertheless, I thought I should contribute my 2 cents to make this epic game even more epic.

When redrawing the map one must always make a choice between historical accuracy and balance. I've tried to implement both factors as good as possible. But when I really need to chose, I prefer balance over historical accuracy. That's why the map will still not be 100% correct, and probably never will be.

New counties

* County of Namur (playable)
* County of Limburg (playable)
* County of Chiny (playable)
* County of La Roche (playable, but mostly starts in a personal union)
* Prince-Bishopric of Oversticht (Unplayable - In "personal union" with Prince-Bishopric of Utrecht, formerly "Sticht")
* County of Zutphen (playable)
* Renamed county of Breda to county of Antwerpen. Breda was simply a barony within the "Markgraafschap Antwerpen".

All historical rulers for the duration of the game have been added!


New and reformed duchies

Please note that I had to make the difficult choice between making it a historical mod, or a balanced mod.
Therefore de jure borders might not be as they were in reality, or as they would be in later stages of history.


* Duchy of Limburg: County of Limburg
* "Duchy" (Prince-Archbishopric) of Liege: Counties of Liege, Namur and Loon
* Duchy of Luxemburg (reformed): Counties of Luxemburg, La Roche and Chiny
* Duchy of Gelre (reformed): Counties of Gelre, Oversticht and Zutphen
* Duchy of Frisia: counties of Frisia and Ostfriesland

All historical rulers for the duration of the game have been added!


New Kingdom

Kingdom of Lotharingia

Since two of the three successor states of the "Middle Kingdom" are already in the game (Burgundy and Italy), I thought it would only be right to add the last one as well.
Yes, Lotharingia is represented by Upper and Lower Lorraine in the game. Therefore you need to control both duchies (yourself or through vassals) before you can form the kingdom. (You, of course, still need 50% of the territory.)

From Vanilla 1.05 on: Lotharingia is now in the game, but so is Frisia. In this mod Frisia is removed and added to Lotharingia, to represent the realm of Lothar II.


"Redrawn" map

The map has been redrawn to more accuratly represent the political situation in the region.

Also a river was added: the Scheldt. This river was the border between the Middle Kingdom and West-Francia, decided in the Treaty of Verdun. Therefore it also marks the border between the Holy Roman Empire and the Kingdom of France.


New and "fixed" culture

Frisian was added to the West Germanic (Ingvaeonic) culture group. Dutch was moved to the Central Germanic group.


Changed CoA's

Apart from adding the coats of arms of new counties, I have changed the CoA of the following entities:

* Duchy of Flanders
* Duchy of Brabant
* County of Breda (to match its new name of "Antwerpen")
* County of Frisia
* County of Ostfriesland
* County of Westfriesland

Expanded and fixed history

I did a little work in the history files, and added some (long dead) historical characters and gave them their correct titles. For this reason I also added the titular, uncreatable title of "Mayor of the Palace". (The title held by Charles Martel and his father, Pepin.)

I just did this for fun. This will have no influence on your gameplay.

From vanilla 1.05: The expanded history submod has been removed. PI did more research themselves, making this mod unneeded.


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That's about it. I hope you will enjoy this!

Any modders out there are free to use this work in any of your mods, as long as you give me credit for it.

Last but not least: The download link
(A version for the demo can be found here.)


How to install?

1) Open the file with WinRar or a similar program.
2) Extract the content to .../Crusader Kings 2/mod
3) Start the game (through the launcher - Just use the shortcut on your desktop if you don't know what it is.)
4) Select the mod in the mod section in the bottom right corner.
5) Launch the game



Update history:

*[B]1.05[/B]: Fixed a bug causing kingdoms having wrong CoA's. ([URL=http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?w3aqws6wm4vh7bw]download[/URL])

*[B]1.06[/B]: Removed Münster from the de jure area of the Kingdom of Lotharingia. ([URL=http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?5yzmd6zxx9o1z5d]download[/URL])

*[B]1.07[/B]: There now are two landed_titles.txt files. One (default) with Italy and Burgundy in the de jure HRE. One with the vanilla HRE (+ Lotharingia, of course). ([URL=http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?31kactf0k9mbvkt]download[/URL])

*[B]1.08[/B]: The mod can now be run from the mod-directory. Also, the culture of Westfriesland has changed to Frisian at the beginning of the game. By 1200 it will be Dutch. Lotharingia now has a more plausible flag. ([URL=http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?cr0zjgfj33oqox6]download[/URL])

*[B]1.09[/B]: The Prince-Abbacy of Stavelot has been removed and the county of Zutphen has been added. Zutphen played a more important role in the medieval history of the Lowlands, while Stavelot was relativly unimportant. This also removes a county from 'Belgium' and adds one to the 'Netherlands'. That way the area is in a better balance.
Due to the change in the map the Duchy of Gelre had to be reformed. Frisia has been cut off, and is now a duchy on its own.
There have also been some changes to the CoA's. Mostly Frisian ones. ([URL=http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?w55u59uudoq8r2a]download[/URL])

*[B]1.10[/B]: Compatible with CK2 1.04 ([URL=http://www.mediafire.com/?tj3r7v289b6o09b]download[/URL])

*[B]1.11[/B]: Compatible with CK2 1.05. Also, the expanded history submod has been removed. ([URL=http://www.mediafire.com/?pe6fdskadz9y1sv]download[/URL])

*[B]1.11b[/B]: Minor fix: County of Zutphen now has the Dutch culture. ([URL=http://www.mediafire.com/?mzdd1f8th4r7xel]download[/URL])

*[B]1.12[/B]: Now compatible with CK2 1.06. ([URL=http://www.mediafire.com/?1h51m6ot5uoa9fn]download[/URL])

Some pictures (older versions):

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Any feedback is very welcome!

 

[Hellvink]

Huzzah! We will go forth to testing immediately.

 

[Veldmaarschalk]

Looks nice, some remarks (I haven't installed it yet).

- several characters are missing a dynasty-ID (in the Lotharingia mod)
- You have scripted some spouses like this: 625.1.1 = { spouse=900503 } is should be like this 625.1.1 = { add_spouse=900503 }
- Baronies and counties must always have a ruler scripted (so holder=0 doesn't work). You have only done that for pre-1066 holders so you won't notice the problem.
- To make bishops unselectable, they must also be made ruler of the capital-barony of their county. So in this case the rulers of c_stavelot, should also be the rulers of b_stavelot. I think the game will now crash when you select Stavelot.

EDIT
Also, I think it is better that each province has at least 3 settlements of the 3 different types. Since else f.e. Stavelot can never become something else then a bishopric.

And the most important thing: WHERE IS THE COUNTY OF ZUTPHEN ?

 

[Darrigan]

* Could you tell me what characters do not have a dynasty? The characters in 'stavelot.txt' indeed have none, because they are abbots. They're no nobles.
* I'll look into the spouses thingy. Thanks for reporting!
* I've tested it and it seems to work fine as it is. When I hover over the (greyed-out) 'Play' button it says 'Cannot play as theocracies!'. So that's WAD.

Regarding the number of settlements: I also have to consider balance. I don't think every county should have the same starting settlements, because that would make the lowlands too powerful compared to other regions. Also, Stavelot is now scripted to have a 'Prince-Abbot'. When a feudal ruler would rise to power, he would unfortunately still be called 'Prince-Abbot'. There's not much I can do about that. Also Stavelot is a rather small area, and there wouldn't be a lot of room to found a castle, let alone an entire city.

Zutphen is still being looked into. I know it played quite a significant rule, but because of its size i have not yet found the best way to represent it. Untill now it has been a 'barony' within Gelre. but that might change later on. (To keep the current balance I am thinking of removing Stavelot and adding Zutphen instead. That way no more province has to be added.)

 

[Arko]

a little border error on northern of Trier along the river. there is a little piece of Mayence.

any recommandation on a good starting date ?

 

[Veldmaarschalk]

* Could you tell me what characters do not have a dynasty? The characters in 'stavelot.txt' indeed have none, because they are abbots. They're no nobles.

These ones

900501 = {
	name="Ansegisel"
	625.1.1 = { spouse=900503 }
	martial=7
	diplomacy=6
	intrigue=6
	stewardship=7
	father=900502
	religion="catholic"
	culture="frankish"
	602.1.1 = {
		birth="602.1.1"
	}
	662.1.1 = {
		death="662.1.1"
	}
}
900502 = {
	name="Arnulf" #Arnulf of Metz
	martial=7
	diplomacy=6
	intrigue=6
	stewardship=7
	religion="catholic"
	culture="frankish"
	582.1.1 = {
		birth="582.1.1"
	}
	640.8.16 = {
		death="640.8.16"
	}
}
900503 = {
	name="Begga" #Begga, daughter of Pepin I
	female=yes
	625.1.1 = { spouse=900501 }
	martial=7
	diplomacy=6
	intrigue=6
	stewardship=7
	father=900504
	mother=900506
	religion="catholic"
	culture="frankish"
	615.1.1 = {
		birth="615.1.1"
	}
	693.12.17 = {
		death="693.12.17"
	}
}

etc.

 

[Darrigan]

Oh.. Well, that's because they didn't really have a dynasty. Dynasties did not really exist until Charlemagne. And even the Karlings are said to actually have been called 'Karlings' long after Charlemagne's death. Those characters are long dead as well, so I think it doesn't really matter...

 

[Empty86]

Nice add-on, saves me a lot of time of having to add Oversticht myself.

But Karling? Who ever called it Karling? Why was it Germanified? Iirc Charlemagne was called Karolus in his time.

 

[Darrigan]

I'm currently working on the 1.09 version. I have removed Stavelot (it fits better under Liege) and added Zutphen instead. That way 'Belgium' loses a province and 'the Netherlands' gain one. I think it makes for better balance.
I am also re-doing the CoA's of the Frisian counties, as suggested. Though, I'm having trouble finding a suitable CoA for Ostfriesland (present-day Germany). Anyone knows a good candidate?

EDIT: Hadn't seen Arko's post.

a little border error on northern of Trier along the river. there is a little piece of Mayence.

any recommandation on a good starting date ?

Thanks. I'll look into it.

I mostly start around 1066, but Lower-Lorraine collapses around 1200 or so. If you want some more duchies (Brabant,...) at start, 1200 might be a good shot.

 

[Ruwaard]

Nice add-on, saves me a lot of time of having to add Oversticht myself.

But Karling? Who ever called it Karling? Why was it Germanified? Iirc Charlemagne was called Karolus in his time.

I more used to Karoling too.

Regarding the coat of arms for East Frisia (Ostfriesland), though it is from very late in the game you could use the coat of arms of the Cirksena, the first comital dynasty of East Frisia.

 

[Veldmaarschalk]

I'm currently working on the 1.09 version. I have removed Stavelot (it fits better under Liege) and added Zutphen instead. That way 'Belgium' loses a province and 'the Netherlands' gain one. I think it makes for better balance.
I am also re-doing the CoA's of the Frisian counties, as suggested. Though, I'm having trouble finding a suitable CoA for Ostfriesland (present-day Germany). Anyone knows a good candidate?

You could use the one of the Cirksena dynasty, who are the rulers of Ostfriesland since the early 1200s.

 

[cdcdrr]

I am also re-doing the CoA's of the Frisian counties, as suggested. Though, I'm having trouble finding a suitable CoA for Ostfriesland (present-day Germany). Anyone knows a good candidate?

I've been wondering the same thing. I have no idea where the central Frisian coa came from, but if anything I would switch the Frisia and Ostfriesland coa's around. The one for Ostfriesland is definately more suitable for Frisia, and the obscure black paw/red wheel coa might as well go to Ostfriesland in exchange.

I've been doing some work on those coa myself, but without a program to convert to .tga I can't change them from .gif to the standard the game uses. But for some I was able to re-use the current .tga files in the game.

 

[SnakeByte99]

As a fellow lowlander my heart started beating a little bit faster when I read about this mod! Thanks, will certainly try it.

 

[Niptium]

But errr. Why is Holland a Duchy in game ? It never was a Duchy in history!

 

[xcrissxcrossx]

Good mod!

 

[cdcdrr]

But errr. Why is Holland a Duchy in game ? It never was a Duchy in history!

It was definately as powerful as many other duchies, like Gelre. And so was Flanders. In gameplay terms, their power level translates into dukedom.

 

[Darrigan]

But errr. Why is Holland a Duchy in game ? It never was a Duchy in history!

It was definately as powerful as many other duchies, like Gelre. And so was Flanders. In gameplay terms, their power level translates into dukedom.

C&D has given you the answer
It is already like this in vanilla. It's obligatory for gameplay reasons. Both the county of Holland and county of Flanders had other counties as their vassals. This would not have been possible if they were counties themselves.

(the county of Zeeland was a vassal of the county of Holland, and the county of Guines was a vassal of the county of Flanders, for example.)

 

[Darrigan]

I've been wondering the same thing. I have no idea where the central Frisian coa came from, but if anything I would switch the Frisia and Ostfriesland coa's around. The one for Ostfriesland is definately more suitable for Frisia, and the obscure black paw/red wheel coa might as well go to Ostfriesland in exchange.

I've been doing some work on those coa myself, but without a program to convert to .tga I can't change them from .gif to the standard the game uses. But for some I was able to re-use the current .tga files in the game.

I have indeed switched them around, and am using the CoA of the Cirkensa dynasty for Ostfriesland, as Veldmaarschalk proposed.

You should check out ConvertHub! It's an easy tool to convert image-files. Alternatively, you can use Photoshop to alter CoA's. It allows you to save images as TGA-files.

 

[Ruwaard]

Or Photoshop like programs such as GIMP.

 

[cdcdrr]

(the county of Zeeland was a vassal of the county of Holland, and the county of Guines was a vassal of the county of Flanders, for example.)

In fact, the rulers of Flanders have sometimes been referred to as 'archcount' to denote this supremacy over lesser counts. I'm not sure about Zeeland as a vassal state. It's normally been treated as an integral part of Holland with the count holding both territories instead of granting it to subordinates.

You should check out ConvertHub! It's an easy tool to convert image-files. Alternatively, you can use Photoshop to alter CoA's. It allows you to save images as TGA-files.

Thanks, I'll look at them tomorrow if I have time.