Bad Ronald's Custom Colors and Flags

[bad_ronald]

Bad Ronald's Custom Colors and Flags v2.0

All Changes Pictured Below:

In each subsection of the above picture: the large flag that appears to the right of the minimap within the game is at the top left, a small pic which shows the color of the civ's border is at the bottom left, a unit with the flag to its left is in the center, and the civ's color as depicted in the minimap is at the top right. I have created new flags for every civilization except Mali, Egypt, Inca, and Aztecs (suggestions are welcome). Most are simply the modern flags of the nations in question, but for some others I either took an earlier flag or fabricated one.

Actual Flags from an Earlier Period
The Russians use the Imperial flag not the modern one (I think it fits best with the Russian leaders). I did not give the Romans the modern Italian flag but SPQR has been added to the center of the laurels, and Germany has the red, white and black tricolor (both since it fits nicely with the leaders and looks better with the default German color - gray).

Fabricated Flags Designed to Emulate the Pattern of Modern Ones
For some civilizations, I designed a flag from the perspective of "if in the time this nation/leader existed, the modern format of flags was made use of, what might their flag look like?" With that in mind, I made the Chinese flag purple and gold with a purple dragon inside the gold section. The Persian flag is based on the modern flag of Iran with these exceptions: the colors were changed from red and green to cyan and orange (Persia's civ colors) and the central symbol is now a Zoroastrian Faravahar. The Mongols' flag is based on that of modern Mongolia with these exceptions: the colors are now brown and black (Mongolia's civ colors) and the stripes were changed from three equal sized vertical ones to the pattern you see above with the leftmost stripe twice the size of the two on the right (to better accomodate the symbol).

Color Changes
Rome now has a burgundy color, which I think is more fitting than the default purple. I replaced England's former white with crimson red (barbs are now white). Japan's red has been given a slight orange tint, and the Russians are now yellowish orange to match the color of the imperial flag. Spain is yellow (also matching the flag), and Egypt is black. India has been made a dark orange, and, finally, China is purple to match their flag.

Testing Color Contrasts
Since England and Japan are both red, I placed them on a map to ensure that they are distinguishable (contrast with England and Germany with the default colors).

In Close:

Zoomed Out:

Installation (repeated in the readme):

• Either unzip the file directly to '%Documents Folder%\My Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Custom Assets\' (there is a link to this folder in the Civ 4 root directory),
• Or cut and paste the 'art' and 'xml' folders into the Custom Assets directory after unzipping

To Uninstall: (repeated in the readme)

• Navigate to your custom assets folder and:
• Delete the all of the .dds files in '\art\Interface\TeamColor\'
• Delete '\xml\art\CIV4ArtDefines_Civilization.xml'
• Delete '\xml\interface\CIV4ColorVals' and '...\Civ4PlayerColorInfos'
• Delete '\xml\civilizations\CIV4CivilizationInfos.xml'

Expansion Pack

Options Pictured Below:

In the Instructions.txt file (included in the Expansion pack zip) you will find instructions on how to change any flag that you'd like to the modern flag of the nation in question (or the closest equivalent). I also included the Union Jack as an option for anyone who would prefer it. For the five nations absent (i.e., America, Arabia, France, Greece and India), the flags in the standard pack are already the modern flags; so, it is possible to have all nations represented with modern flags by combining the expansion pack with the default one.

The Instructions.txt file explains how to replace as many or as few flags as you'd like, so it's not necessary to use the Italian flag to represent Rome if you don't want to, etc.

 

[GIDustin]

Woah, Does your zoomed out always look like that?

Anyway, good job on the flags and colors. Since you copied these from mods I am assuming you wont be posting the other civ's flags, right?

Would be cool to get all the civs with their appropriate flags.

 

[theinsane]

Does this mean that the egyptian border is exactly the same looking as barbarian cities?

 

[Crayton]

You put a whole lot of time into fashioning that collage. Great Job fixing the colors! (Although a White England was neat.)

EDIT: Barbarian Cities/Boundaries/Units are now White

 

[bad_ronald]

Does this mean that the egyptian border is exactly the same looking as barbarian cities?

It looks the same as the original barbarian borders, but the barbs have been changed to white, so it won't be confusing.

Anyway, good job on the flags and colors. Since you copied these from mods I am assuming you wont be posting the other civ's flags, right?

Unfortunately, no. I checked all of the .dds files to see if any others would be suitable, but the only German one was the Nazi flag, etc.

Edit:

You put a whole lot of time into fashioning that collage. Great Job fixing the colors!

Well, presentation counts

Although a White England was neat.

I agree, but I just couldn't stand having England next to Germany since they look almost identical on the minimap and the military advisor screen. The barbs being white really isn't as much of a problem. (Also, the pink Spanish looked just awful)

 

[frenchman]

I tried myself to change the standard flags but without success... I tried with the pictures. I see you use the XML ? I will check this way...

 

[GIDustin]

If you can get JPGs of the flags of the other nations, I could attempt to convert them to DDS for you. Might as well replace them all I say.

 

[QueenElizabeth]

Nice work.

Btw, that's not the English flag.. that's the Union Jack, the flag of the United Kingdom.
The English flag is the cross of St George - a red cross on a white background..

 

[Paasky]

I thought the Union Jack also had the diagonal red cross... Unless they forgot to rename the flag after changeing it, that would be quite british

The flags look great, I was a bit startled to find the Somalian flag as the American one

 

[bad_ronald]

Nice work.

Btw, that's not the English flag.. that's the Union Jack, the flag of the United Kingdom.
The English flag is the cross of St George - a red cross on a white background..

I know; I just think the Union Jack looks better . I was considering modding the English civ to be the UK, but that would extend the mod beyond the realm of graphics, and I'd rather not include such a change. It's not possible to keep St. George's Cross and make the English civ's primary color anything other than white, unless a custom flag is created (I spoke too soon, see below ). The flag would have a dark red background and a white cross with the way that the colors are defined at the moment.

Edit: Actually, if you really want to keep the English flag, do the following (or download the second file in the original post):

Open /xml/interface/Civ4PlayerColorInfos.xml, find PLAYERCOLOR_DARK_RED and change <ColorTypeSecondary>COLOR_PLAYER_WHITE</ColorTypeSecondary> to <ColorTypeSecondary>COLOR_PLAYER_RED</ColorTypeSecondary>.

Then, open /xml/art/Civ4ArtDefines_Civilization.xml and change <Path>Mods/American Revolution/Assets/Art/Interface/TeamColor/FlagDECAL_UK.dds</Path> under England's entry to <Path>Art/Interface/TeamColor/FlagDECAL_StGeorgeCross.dds</Path>.

 

[QueenElizabeth]

Great! Thank you.
God Save the Queen, and so forth.

Btw, your 'zoomed out' view is like nothing I've ever seen.. how did you achieve that effect?

Thanks again..

 

[tofof]

OT, but better to answer here, I think.

The zoomed out view is using the 'culture' button. I discovered this the other day myself - when you zoom out far enough, the normal buttons above the minimap all change their pictures and do completely different things - military, culture, religion, etc instead of 'tile yields'. I have yet to see this feature documented anywhere in the manual or civilopedia.

 

[patgarr]

very nice work !

what about doing the same for France, germany... and other civ ?

i think you could take .dds from the krispa40 mod called
"FlaG Mod" - (Banderas)

i think it s a good idea to complete your pack with other modern flags...

 

[jkp1187]

I thought the Union Jack also had the diagonal red cross... Unless they forgot to rename the flag after changeing it, that would be quite british

The flags look great, I was a bit startled to find the Somalian flag as the American one

That's the Irish St. Patrick's Cross that bisects the Scots' St. Andrew's Cross. So, yes, we need to make sure that the Irish get represented here. haven't they suffered enough...?

 

[jkp1187]

BTW, am I the only one who thinks the flags (esp. the modern ones,) might look better if they were hung vertically, instead of attempting to squeeze them in horizontally?

 

[WaxonWaxov]

I thought the Union Jack also had the diagonal red cross... Unless they forgot to rename the flag after changeing it, that would be quite british

The flags look great, I was a bit startled to find the Somalian flag as the American one

OK...

Red horizontal and vertical cross on a white background is the Cross of St. George, which is for England.

A blue flag with X-shaped white cross is for St. Andrew, which is for Scotland.

A red x-shaped cross is for St. Patrick, which is for Ireland.

In 1603 Elizabeth I dies without and heir. James VII of Scotland inherited the throne of England due to intermarriage of the Tudors and Stewards. Hence the United Kingdom of Great Brittan was born. The Blue with a white X flag of Scotland was combined with the Red Cross on a White Flag for England to form the Union Jack with no red X was born.

The Red X was added in 192? When Northern Ireland became part of the Country. The Name of the country also changed to "The United Kingdom of Great Brittan and Northern Ireland"

Clear as mud?


** edited to correct my terrible spelling.

 

[bad_ronald]

New version up, please make comments/suggestions .

 

[CivGreece]

Excellent work, well done!

Just a small suggestion if I may. In Egypt's flag, you could give the hieroglyphic a more bright touch so it is easily spotted on the little flag version that appears on the map! Not that this is a big deal or anything, it just seems a bit blurry. Well it may only be the screenshot that fails to resemble it, not sure! Just a thought

Damn fine work!!

 

[brento1138]

I commend you on this excellent mod. The choice of flags is perfect, I am glad you chose the ones you did.

 

[Corey]

Great mod and nice graphics!