The Portrait problem

[vicky 2]

Now this has been a problem for a while, and I'm not sure on the inner workings of paradox, some important countries lack portraits. While some of these are more tame, others are mind boggling as to how they even got through to release.
1. Democratic China. As the flagship nation to the waking the tiger dlc, I was sorely disappointed when you just get a generic asian dude portrait going democratic. Especially since it is kinda china's only political path if you don't suspend the inter-party coordination council. They even have a portrait for fascist china, even though the only way to go fascist is to get turned into a puppet. Was this a decision made on purpose, or just an oversight? For god sake it was released more than two years ago, china is a bonafide major.

2. France. This one is probably the most baffling. France was the flagship of the most recent dlc and a major, the tree looked great, and I was excited to try them out. Then I load in and what do I see... none of the new general have portraits. At first I thought a mistake had been made and they would be added later, but to my surprise 7 months later and no portraits added. Who at paradox thought this would be ok? I just saw the new turkish general staff portraits and they look amazing, why didn't france get the same treatment? France was such a major part of ww2 that I don't know how they botched the portraits.

3. Hungary. This is not that bad as the others as hungary did not have as much of an impact as the other 2 I mentioned. Hungary's Democratic Leader doesn't have a portrait, which sucks. I hope they add one soon.

I hope the people that do portraits for paradox work on the ones I mentioned, Thank you for reading this and I don't harbor any negative feeling towards paradox, I just want to look at real people instead of El generico.

 

[Mike6979]

And France has the wrong ruler.

 

[DystopianAlphaOmega]

They even have a portrait for fascist china, even though the only way to go fascist is to get turned into a puppet. Was this a decision made on purpose, or just an oversight?

I forget if Wang Jingwei had a portrait before Waking the Tiger or not, but unlike a hypothetical democratic Chinese leader (to be honest, if Chiang leads the country to democracy, should arguably just be him), Jingwei was actually head of a Japanese collaborationist regime. Depending on event choices in the Xi'an incident, you can also end up with Jingwei as non-aligned leader if Chiang dies (not great for the China player, since they lose Chiang's defensive war stability buffs).

 

[randomguyplays]

And France has the wrong ruler.

no that's accurate for january iirc. leon blum only got sworn in after laval was ousted

 

[Sublime Sultan]

And France has the wrong ruler.

It used to be wrong, but they changed it to Pierre Laval, who was the pm of France until Jan 24.

 

[MobiusTwo]

And France has the wrong ruler.

Others have corrected this. I pushed for Pierre Laval to be the leader at the start date, which is eventually what they ended up doing which is great. A new problem has arisen though - in the 1939 start date, he is the starting leader of France, which is bizarre since they still have the portrait for Édouard Daladier (the original, incorrect starting leader in 1936 but historically accurate for 1939) but don't use it anymore in any way, shape, or form...

 

[Dryhad]

Others have corrected this. I pushed for Pierre Laval to be the leader at the start date, which is eventually what they ended up doing which is great. A new problem has arisen though - in the 1939 start date, he is the starting leader of France, which is bizarre since they still have the portrait for Édouard Daladier (the original, incorrect starting leader in 1936 but historically accurate for 1939) but don't use it anymore in any way, shape, or form...

Indeed. While the new focus tree allowed Leon Blum to come to power at more or less the correct point, it lacks any way for him to resign as he did historically. The lack of Camille Chautemps as a fully fledged leader makes things awkward but I think not impossibly so; it would be satisfactory for one of the French focuses in the historical path to cause Blum's (or Laval's) resignation and replacement with Daladier which would be an economical use of the portraits at Paradox's disposal. In any case, it is very strange indeed that Blum is leader in the 1939 bookmark since such a thing had to be specifically scripted; it only makes sense in a gamey way that places undue faith in the incorrect representation of the focus tree as it now stands.

 

[kimidf]

As I have said in other posts, both Daladier and Reynaud should have been added as central leaders of France, Daladier could come to ratify their Franco-British alliance and Reinaud should appear in the early 40's when the winter war has broken out

 

[Indyclone77]

I don't harbor any negative feeling towards paradox,

Yet the tone of your post is quite negative if not directly accusing Paradox of either being lazy or deliberately missing out portraits. There is only so much Artistic Time for each DLC which does, unfortunately, mean sometimes less important portraits do not make the cut compared to higher priority leaders/generals.

 

[Simone87]

What they did with french leaders in LR hurts, I didn't expect Reynauld but I don't see why they cut Daladier off, and the lack of portraits for the new Portuguese (Esteves) and French generals was a disappointment.
Also, South Africa lacks Jan Smuts' portrait, keeping Hertzog (alive) as Head of State even after 1942.
I hope Paradox will someday address the issue.

 

[Indyclone77]

What they did with french leaders in LR hurts, I didn't expect Reynauld but I don't see why they cut Daladier off, and the lack of portraits for the new Portuguese (Esteves) and French generals was a disappointment.
Also, South Africa lacks Jan Smuts' portrait, keeping Hertzog (alive) as Head of State even after 1942.
I hope Paradox will someday address the issue.

Portugal got General Portraits in the 1.9.1 patch though

 

[Simone87]

Portugal got General Portraits in the 1.9.1 patch though

I play with Husky 1.9.3 and Raul Augusto Esteves still has this portrait:

 

[Vityviktor]

The whole "single leader-single portrait" thing is awful. At least, every leader could have its own unique portrait (and with a decent quality, just look at Francisco Franco's new one...) . But that's not the case.

 

[Ketchup & friends]

The devs should use the portraits gathered by @CirclePete .
Since many of them are made by modders, PDX should ask them if they can use them in the game and credit them as artists.

 

[Sublime Sultan]

I play with Husky 1.9.3 and Raul Augusto Esteves still has this portrait:

And two of the Canadian and three of the French generals still have generic portraits...

 

[vicky 2]

Yet the tone of your post is quite negative if not directly accusing Paradox of either being lazy or deliberately missing out portraits. There is only so much Artistic Time for each DLC which does, unfortunately, mean sometimes less important portraits do not make the cut compared to higher priority leaders/generals.

I did not and do not accuse paradox of being lazy, I understand that the team has deadlines and other work going on. And less important? Given the hungary one is mostly irrelevant, but France and China are majors that didn't get portraits in their own flagship dlc. When there is a dlc called la resistance, I expect france to get top billing, yet portugal and spain get portraits even though they aren't the main focus. Same with waking the tiger, you are telling me it's ok that China's only political path gets you el generico, but they added a fucking kaiserin victoria portrait for germany even though she was super hard to get and a fringe path at best? Do you consider a kaiserin victoria or paul von lettow-vorbeck portrait as more important than the leader of China? I don't see it as a lack of artistic time, but a misuse of it.

 

[Darksworthyone]

Dont forget communist Canada, it take two seconds to look up the guy and fined a portrait of him yet pdx still hasent fixed it, just goes to show Canada is the most unfinished dlc nation.

 

[XselenS]

Bump because Paradox needs to se and fix this. DLC should come with portraits immediately. They have a seperate portrait department now, so there is no excuse anymore.

 

[Indyclone77]

Bump because Paradox needs to se and fix this. DLC should come with portraits immediately. They have a seperate portrait department now, so there is no excuse anymore.

"They have a seperate portrait department now, so there is no excuse anymore. " The same artists that do portraits also do every single other piece of 2D art in the game.

 

[GSS_]

Although France is one of the major countries, is not a very popular choice. France is defeated in a very short time, if plays the AI in 1940 so I guess PDX thought
that it would not be worth investing in a country that has a less relevant role in the war. Also, if you play as Free France you have no divisions, then why more general portraits when you can fill the new divisions with the old ones? I think is about priorities, they focus on things that have more impact on the gameplay which is what players are looking for.